Read "Marlena (Poems from Mardi)" by Herman Melville online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Far off in the sea is Marlena, / A land of shades and streams, / A land of many delights, / Dark and bold, thy shores, Marlena; / But green, and timorous, thy soft knolls, / Crouching behind the woodlands.
All shady thy hills; all gleaming thy springs, / Like eyes in the earth looking at you.
How charming thy haunts, Marlena! - / Oh, the waters that flow through Onimoo; / Oh, the leaves that rustle through Ponoo: / Oh, the roses that blossom in Tarma.
Come, and see the valley of Vina: / How sweet, how sweet, the Isles from Hina: / 'Tis aye afternoon of the full, full moon, / And ever the season of fruit, / And ever the hour of flowers, / And never the time of rains and gales, / All in and about Marlena.
Soft sigh the boughs in the stilly air, / Soft lap the beach the billows there; / And in the woods or by the streams, / You needs must nod in the Land of Dreams.