Since the dawn of language, poets have celebrated the majestic immensity of Earth's oceans, the powerful waters that create and destroy, the intense drama and soothing gentleness of waves, the dangerous voyages to distant shores, and the indelible sensory memories set on shifting sandy beaches drenched in sunshine. This collection joins the verse of renowned poets with the voices of select modern writers, all inspired by the ceaseless splendor of the sea. Includes a reading guide for teachers and book groups, and biographies of the poets inside. Classic Dante Alighieri Joseph Auslander Thomas Lovell Beddoes Elizabeth Barrett Browning George Shepard Burleigh Lord Byron Bliss Carman Stephen Crane H. D. Emily Dickinson A. E. Ralph Waldo Emerson Charlotte Perkins Gilman Arthur Guiterman Thomas Hardy Sadakichi Hartmann Nathaniel Hawthorne Rudyard Kipling Thomas S. Jones, Jr. D. H. Lawrence Eugene Lee-Hamilton Henry Wadsworth Longfellow John Masefield Edna St. Vincent Millay Marianne Moore Thomas Moore John Boyle O'Reilly Eva L. Ogden Ezra Pound Rainer Maria Rilke Dante Gabriel Rossetti Alan Seeger William Shakespeare John Sterling Wallace Stevens Robert Louis Stevenson Sara Teasdale Alfred, Lord Tennyson Walt Whitman Oscar Wilde William Wordsworth William Butler Yeats Current Joel Allegretti Carol Alena Aronoff Janet Barry Sidney Bending Ben Bever Jenny Blackford Eloise Bruce R. T. Castleberry Bill Cushing Lauren Davis Elizabeth Ruth Deyro Agnieszka Filipek Marj Hahne David Holper Gene Hult Clarissa Jakobsons Marjorie Maddox Paul Magrs Lucinda Marshall Stephen McGuinness Leah Mueller Ciarán Parkes Winston Plowes Suzanne S. Rancourt Meg Smith Alec Solomita Alison Stone Larry D. Thacker Lynne Viti