Lo! here sit we by the sun-down seas
And the White Sierras. The sweet sea-brreeze
Is about us here; and a sky so fair
Is bending above, so cloudless, blue,
That you gaze and you gaze and you dream, and you
See God and the portals of heaven there.
[Extract - these are the opening lines of the poem]
Author's Note: "This was written during my first railroad ride from New York to San Francisco, at a time when this was the greatest ride on the globe and parties came to California in great crowds to look upon the Pacific. It is to be deplored that zeal and interest have so nearly perished with the novelty of the great journey."
Joaquin Miller settled in the hills above Oakland, looking out towards San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
Poetry Atlas has many other poems about California.