Amalfi by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Surrounded by snow, wind, and an icebound river, the speaker remembers Amalfi’s summer coast, the Canneto powering mills and a forge, and peasant girls carrying burdens uphill. A monk surveys their work from a convent terrace, while the speaker recalls vanished shipping and the town’s submerged streets and wharves. Beyond lies Paestum with its ruins and roses; the monk drifts into sleep amid garden scents and the murmur of bees.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Descriptive Poetry, Reflective Poetry · 832 words
First lines
Sweet the memory is to me / Of a land beyond the sea, / Where the waves and mountains meet, / Where, amid her mulberry-trees / Sits Amalfi in the heat, / Bathing ever her white feet / In the tideless summer seas.
In the middle of the town, / From its fountains in the hills, / Tumbling through the narrow gorge, / The Canneto rushes down, / Turns the great wheels of the mills, / Lifts the hammers of the forge.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The speaker frames the coastal scenes as a cherished memory that returns amid snow, wind, and an icebound river.
- Descriptive Poetry — Rhymed stanzas describe the torrent-driven mills, steep stairway, convent terrace, coastal bay, and distant ruins.
- Reflective Poetry — The speaker questions the peasant girls’ burdens and considers vanished commerce and submerged streets, while the monk wonders about the purpose of toil.
Tags
coastal towns · memory · peasant labor · monastic leisure · sunken cities · ruins · winter
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Amalfi is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Descriptive Poetry, Reflective Poetry
- Length: 832 words
- Structure: 1 section, 9 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for Amalfi by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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