American poet (1807-1882)
O little souls! as pure as white
And crystalline as rays of light
Direct from heaven, their source divine;
Refracted through the mist of years,
How red my setting sun appears,
How lurid looks this soul of mine!
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Weariness"
Through woods and mountain passes
The winds, like anthems, roll.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Midnight Mass for the Dying Year"
There in seclusion and remote from men
The wizard hand lies cold,
Which at its topmost speed let fall the pen,
And left the tale half told.
Ah! who shall lift that wand of magic power,
And the lost clew regain?
The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower
Unfinished must remain!
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Hawthorne"
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Morituri Salutamus", Poems and Other Writings
The first pressure of sorrow crushes out from our hearts the best wine; afterwards the constant weight of it brings forth bitterness, -- the taste and stain from the lees of the vat.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
and silently steal away.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Day Is Done"
Burn, O evening hearth, and waken
Pleasant visions, as of old!
Though the house by winds be shaken,
Safe I keep this room of gold!
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Bridge of Cloud"
The surest pledge of a deathless name
Is the silent homage of thoughts unspoken.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Herons of Elmwood", Keramos and Other Poems
There is no Death! What seems so is transition;
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call Death.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Resignation"
The men that women marry,
And why they marry them, will always be
A marvel and a mystery to the world.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Michael Angelo"
The architect
Built his great heart into these sculptured stones,
And with him toiled his children, and their lives
Were builded, with his own, into the walls,
As offerings unto God.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Christus: The Golden Legend
I cannot believe any man can be perfectly well in body, who has much labor of the mind to perform.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
letter to Stephen Longfellow, September 17, 1842
Ah! vainest of all things
Is the gratitude of kings.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Belisarius
Truths that startled the generation in which they were first announced become in the next age the commonplaces of conversation; as the famous airs of operas which thrilled the first audiences come to be played on hand-organs in the streets.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
God sent his Singers upon earth
With songs of sadness and of mirth,
That they might touch the hearts of men,
And bring them back to heaven again.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
The Singers
Sail forth into the sea of life,
O gentle, loving, trusting wife,
And safe from all adversity
Upon the bosom of that sea
Thy comings and thy goings be!
For gentleness and love and trust
Prevail o'er angry wave and gust;
And in the wreck of noble lives
Something immortal still survives.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Building of the Ship"
Who dares to say that he alone has found the truth?
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
The New England Tragedies
Many critics are like woodpeckers, who, instead of enjoying the fruit and shadow of a tree, hop incessantly around the trunk, pecking holes in the bark to discover some little worm or other.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
It is the heart and not the brain,
That to the highest doth attain.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Building of the Ship"