HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

OK I said yesterday's was the last. But there's still this one day left of Poetry Month, and I can't resist just one more. And thanks to those of you who have encouraged me to include more poetry now and then.




The north central coast of California, Monterey County to be exact, is my favorite place in this country. It's so very beautiful! Mr. Longfellow thought so too. He spent a lot of his time there, and I understand that it was there that he wrote his epic poem, Evangeline. The love story told in this poem took place in Acadia, not in California. But he was inspired by the sea and the forests around him. If you visit Point Lobos you will understand. If you spend some time there, you can close your eyes and listen to the waves crashing on the rocks, and breathe in the scent of the forest. And you can recall the words in the first half of the Prologue to Evangeline.



This is the forest primeval.
The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss and in garments green
Indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld,
With voices sad and prophetic;
Stand like harpers hoar,
With beards that rest on their bosoms,
While loud from its rocky caverns
The deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate
Answers the wail of the forest.













These pictures are both from webshots.com
I do not feel my own pictures from Point Lobos are descriptive enough to illustrate the poem.