Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellowwas an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, and was one of the five Fireside Poets...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth27 February 1807
CityPortland, ME
CountryUnited States of America
play skills soul
In old age our bodies are worn-out instruments, on which the soul tries in vain to play the melodies of youth. But because the instrument has lost its strings, or is out of tune, it does not follow that the musician has lost his skill.
work play water
Work is my recreation, The play of faculty; a delight like that Which a bird feels in flying, or a fish In darting through the water,--Nothing more.
wind play ships
And the wind plays on those great sonorous harps, the shrouds and masts of ships.
men perfect-days play
O gift of God! O perfect day: Whereon shall no man work, but play; Whereon it is enough for me, Not to be doing, but to be!
explain less takes time
It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.
city far scattered separate snow wandered
Far asunder, on separate coasts, the Acadians landed, ... Scattered were they, like flakes of snow . . . friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city to city.
beginning dark known night pause
Between the dark and the daylight, / When the night is beginning to lower, / Comes a pause in the day's occupations, / That is known as the Children's Hour.
arrow fell knew shot
I shot an arrow into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where (The Arrow and the Song)
grand hundredth puritan singing
Singing the Hundredth Psalm, the grand old Puritan anthem.
great next power understanding
Next to being a great poet, is the power of understanding one
bends bow cord draws man though unto useless
As unto the bow the cord is, / So unto the man is woman; / Though she bends him, she obeys him, / Though she draws him, yet she follows; / Useless each without the other!
brow honest looks man owes wet
His brow is wet with honest sweat, He earns whate'er he can; And looks the whole world in the face, For he owes not any man
shouts
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.
common life thy
Thy fate is the common fate of all; Into each life some rain must fall.