A Summer Day by the Sea
Sunset clouds and gleaming lighthouses mark the arrival of night beside the sea. The speaker imagines the summer day, full of gladness and pain, enduring as a reminder of lost delight for some and a new beginning for others.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Sonnet, Nature Poetry, Reflective Poetry · 159 words
First lines
The sun is set; and in his latest beams / Yon little cloud of ashen gray and gold, / Slowly upon the amber air unrolled, / The falling mantle of the Prophet seems. / From the dim headlands many a lighthouse gleams, / The street-lamps of the ocean; and behold, / O'erhead the banners of the night unfold; / The day hath passed into the land of dreams. / O summer day beside the joyous sea! / O summer day so wonderful and white, / So full of gladness and so full of pain! / Forever and forever shalt thou be / To some the gravestone of a dead delight, / To some the landmark of a new domain.
What this Textopian page supports
A Summer Day by the Sea is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Sonnet, Nature Poetry, Reflective Poetry
- Length: 159 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for A Summer Day by the Sea by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines turn from an eight-line sunset description to six lines addressing the summer day.
- Nature Poetry — Sunlight, a cloud, headlands, and the sea establish the coastal scene as night falls.
- Reflective Poetry — The closing lines consider how the same day can mark lost delight for some and a new beginning for others.
Tags
sunset · sea · summer · lost delight · new beginnings · sonnet