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Lyric Poem · Peace

Home-Thoughts, From the Sea

by Robert Browning

1Nobly, nobly, Cape Saint Vincent to the Northwest died away;

2Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay;

3Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;

4In the dimmest Northeast distance dawned Gibraltar grand and gray;

5"Here and here did England help me: how can I help England?" — say,

6Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God and pray,

7While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa.

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Quick facts

Poem
Home-Thoughts, From the Sea
Poet
Robert Browning
Length
7 lines
Form
Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes
Peace, Death & Loss, Nature, Short

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
7 lines · 2 stanzas of 3–4 lines
Line length
Lines run 13-16 syllables (median 15). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Robert Browning1812–1889
Source record
PoetryDBHome-Thoughts, From the Sea by robert-browning, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 faf8e297fad46161
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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