Poem: “Star Island Church,” by Edna Dean Proctor

STAR ISLAND CHURCH
(Isles of Shoals)

Star Island old church, Isles of Shoals, N.H.; Detroit Publishing Company; 1910; Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Star Island old church, Isles of Shoals, N.H.; Detroit Publishing Company; 1910; Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

 

“GRAY as the fog-wreaths over it blown
When the surf beats high and the caves make moan,
Stained with lichens and stormy weather
The church and the scarred rocks rise together;
And you scarce may tell, if a shadow falls,
Which are the ledges and which the walls.”

“By the sombre tower, when daylight dies,
And dim as a cloud the horizon lies,
I love to linger and watch the sails
Turn to the harbor with freshening gales,
Till yacht and dory and coaster bold
Are moored as safe as a flock in fold.”

 

“White Island lifts its ruddy shine
High and clear o’er the weltering brine,
and Boone and Portsmouth and far Cape Ann
Flame the dusk of the deep to span,
And the only sounds by the tower that be
Are the wail of the wind and the wash of the sea.”

“Gray as the fog-wreaths over it blown
When the surf beats high and the caves make moan,
Stained with lichens and stormy weather
The church and the scarred rocks rise together;
And you scarce may tell, if a shadow falls,
Which are the ledges and which are the walls.”

— by Edna Dean Proctor
from The Mountain Maid and Other Poems, page 36-37

**ALSO SEE**

Isles of Shoals New Hampshire: No Hogs, No Women

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