Lyric Poem · Nature

The Sound of the Sea

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,

And round the pebbly beaches far and wide

I heard the first wave of the rising tide

Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;

A voice out of the silence of the deep,

A sound mysteriously multiplied

As of a cataract from the mountain's side,

Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.

So comes to us at times, from the unknown

And inaccessible solitudes of being,

The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;

And inspirations, that we deem our own,

Are some divine of foreshadowing and foreseeing

Of things beyond our reason or control.

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“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.

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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: 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.

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Lyric Poem Nature Peace Dreams & Sleep

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