Lyric Poem · Nature
The Sound of the Sea
1The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,
2And round the pebbly beaches far and wide
3I heard the first wave of the rising tide
4Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;
5A voice out of the silence of the deep,
6A sound mysteriously multiplied
7As of a cataract from the mountain's side,
8Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.
9So comes to us at times, from the unknown
10And inaccessible solitudes of being,
11The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;
12And inspirations, that we deem our own,
13Are some divine of foreshadowing and foreseeing
14Of things beyond our reason or control.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“The Sound of the Sea” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — quilloak.com/poems/the-sound-of-the-sea
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Sound of the Sea
- Poet
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Peace, Dreams & Sleep
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
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- End rhyme
- ABBAACBADEFDGF.
- Line length
- Lines run 9-12 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
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
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882
- Source record
- PoetryDBThe Sound of the Sea by henry-wadsworth-longfellow, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 48bb6d249502aa46…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.