[ { "title": "The Song of Hiawatha: X", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "X. Hiawatha's Wooing", "", "\"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!\"", "", "Thus the youthful Hiawatha", "Said within himself and pondered,", "Much perplexed by various feelings,", "Listless, longing, hoping, fearing,", "Dreaming still of Minnehaha,", "Of the lovely Laughing Water,", "In the land of the Dacotahs.", "", "\"Wed a maiden of your people,\"", "Warning said the old Nokomis;", "\"Go not eastward, go not westward,", "For a stranger, whom we know not!", "Like a fire upon the hearth-stone", "Is a neighbor's homely daughter,", "Like the starlight or the moonlight", "Is the handsomest of strangers!\"", "", "Thus dissuading spake Nokomis,", "And my Hiawatha answered", "Only this: \"Dear old Nokomis,", "Very pleasant is the firelight,", "But I like the starlight better,", "Better do I like the moonlight!\"", "", "Gravely then said old Nokomis:", "\"Bring not here an idle maiden,", "Bring not here a useless woman,", "Hands unskilful, feet unwilling;", "Bring a wife with nimble fingers,", "Heart and hand that move together,", "Feet that run on willing errands!\"", "", "Smiling answered Hiawatha:", "\"In the land of the Dacotahs", "Lives the Arrow-maker's daughter,", "Minnehaha, Laughing Water,", "Handsomest of all the women.", "I will bring her to your wigwam,", "She shall run upon your errands,", "Be your starlight, moonlight, firelight,", "Be the sunlight of my people!\"", "", "Still dissuading said Nokomis:", "\"Bring not to my lodge a stranger", "From the land of the Dacotahs!", "Very fierce are the Dacotahs,", "Often is there war between us,", "There are feuds yet unforgotten,", "Wounds that ache and still may open!", "", "Laughing answered Hiawatha:", "\"For that reason, if no other,", "Would I wed the fair Dacotah,", "That our tribes might be united,", "That old feuds might be forgotten,", "And old wounds be healed forever!\"", "", "Thus departed Hiawatha", "To the land of the Dacotahs,", "To the land of handsome women;", "Striding over moor and meadow,", "Through interminable forests,", "Through uninterrupted silence.", "", "With his moccasins of magic,", "At each stride a mile he measured;", "Yet the way seemed long before him,", "And his heart outran his footsteps;", "And he journeyed without resting,", "Till he heard the cataract's laughter,", "Heard the Falls of Minnehaha", "Calling to him through the silence.", "\"Pleasant is the sound!\" he murmured,", "\"Pleasant is the voice that calls me!\"", "", "On the outskirts of the forests,", "'Twixt the shadow and the sunshine,", "Herds of fallow deer were feeding,", "But they saw not Hiawatha;", "To his bow be whispered, \"Fail not!\"", "To his arrow whispered, \"Swerve not!\"", "Sent it singing on its errand,", "To the red heart of the roebuck;", "Threw the deer across his shoulder,", "And sped forward without pausing.", "", "At the doorway of his wigwam", "Sat his ancient Arrow-maker,", "In the land of the Dacotahs,", "Making arrow-heads of jasper,", "Arrow-heads of chalcedony.", "At his side, in all her beauty,", "Sat the lovely Minnehaha,", "Sat his daughter, Laughing Water,", "Plaiting mats of flags and rushes;", "Of the past the old man's thoughts were,", "And the maiden's of the future.", "", "He was thinking, as he sat there,", "Of the days when with such arrows", "He had struck the deer and bison,", "On the Muskoday, the meadow;", "Shot the wild goose, flying southward,", "On the wing, the clamorous Wawa;", "Thinking of the great war-parties,", "How they came to buy his arrows,", "Could not fight without his arrows.", "Ah, no more such noble warriors", "Could be found on earth as they were!", "Now the men were all like women,", "Only used their tongues for weapons!", "", "She was thinking of a hunter,", "From another tribe and country,", "Young and tall and very handsome,", "Who one morning, in the Spring-time,", "Came to buy her father's arrows,", "Lingered long about the doorway,", "Sat and rested in the wigwam,", "Looking back as he departed.", "She had heard her father praise him,", "Praise his courage and his wisdom;", "Would he come again for arrows", "To the Falls of Minnehaha?", "On the mat her hands lay idle,", "And her eyes were very dreamy.", "", "Through their thoughts they heard a footstep,", "Heard a rustling in the branches,", "And with glowing cheek and forehead,", "With the deer upon his shoulders,", "Suddenly from out the woodlands", "Hiawatha stood before them.", "", "Straight the ancient Arrow-maker", "Looked up gravely from his labor,", "Laid aside the unfinished arrow,", "Bade him enter at the doorway,", "Saying, as he rose to meet him,", "\"Hiawatha, you are welcome!\"", "", "At the feet of Laughing Water", "Hiawatha laid his burden,", "Threw the red deer from his shoulders;", "And the maiden looked up at him,", "Looked up from her mat of rushes,", "Said with gentle look and accent,", "\"You are welcome, Hiawatha!\"", "", "Very spacious was the wigwam,", "Made of deer-skins dressed and whitened,", "With the Gods of the Dacotahs", "Drawn and painted on its curtains,", "And so tall the doorway, hardly", "Hiawatha stooped to enter,", "Hardly touched his eagle-feathers", "As he entered at the doorway.", "", "Then uprose the Laughing Water,", "From the ground fair Minnehaha,", "Laid aside her mat unfinished,", "Brought forth food and set before them,", "Water brought them from the brooklet,", "Gave them food in earthen vessels,", "Gave them drink in bowls of bass-wood,", "Listened while the guest was speaking,", "Listened while her father answered,", "But not once her lips she opened,", "Not a single word she uttered.", "", "Yes, as in a dream she listened", "To the words of Hiawatha,", "As he talked of old Nokomis,", "Who had nursed him in his childhood,", "As he told of his companions,", "Chibiabos, the musician,", "And the very strong man, Kwasind,", "And of happiness and plenty", "In the land of the Ojibways,", "In the pleasant land and peaceful.", "", "\"After many years of warfare,", "Many years of strife and bloodshed,", "There is peace between the Ojibways", "And the tribe of the Dacotahs.\"", "Thus continued Hiawatha,", "And then added, speaking slowly,", "'That this peace may last forever,", "And our hands be clasped more closely,", "And our hearts be more united,", "Give me as my wife this maiden,", "Minnehaha, Laughing Water,", "Loveliest of Dacotah women!", "", "And the ancient Arrow-maker", "Paused a moment ere he answered,", "Smoked a little while in silence,", "Looked at Hiawatha proudly,", "Fondly looked at Laughing Water,", "And made answer very gravely:", "\"Yes, if Minnehaha wishes;", "Let your heart speak, Minnehaha!\"", "", "And the lovely Laughing Water", "Seemed more lovely as she stood there,", "Neither willing nor reluctant,", "As she went to Hiawatha,", "Softly took the seat beside him,", "While she said, and blushed to say it,", "\"I will follow you, my husband!\"", "", "This was Hiawatha's wooing!", "Thus it was he won the daughter", "Of the ancient Arrow-maker,", "In the land of the Dacotahs!", "", "From the wigwam he departed,", "Leading with him Laughing Water;", "Hand in hand they went together,", "Through the woodland and the meadow,", "Left the old man standing lonely", "At the doorway of his wigwam,", "Heard the Falls of Minnehaha", "Calling to them from the distance,", "Crying to them from afar off,", "\"Fare thee well, O Minnehaha!\"", "", "And the ancient Arrow-maker", "Turned again unto his labor,", "Sat down by his sunny doorway,", "Murmuring to himself, and saying:", "\"Thus it is our daughters leave us,", "Those we love, and those who love us!", "Just when they have learned to help us,", "When we are old and lean upon them,", "Comes a youth with flaunting feathers,", "With his flute of reeds, a stranger", "Wanders piping through the village,", "Beckons to the fairest maiden,", "And she follows where he leads her,", "Leaving all things for the stranger!\"", "", "Pleasant was the journey homeward,", "Through interminable forests,", "Over meadow, over mountain,", "Over river, hill, and hollow.", "Short it seemed to Hiawatha,", "Though they journeyed very slowly,", "Though his pace he checked and slackened", "To the steps of Laughing Water.", "", "Over wide and rushing rivers", "In his arms he bore the maiden;", "Light he thought her as a feather,", "As the plume upon his head-gear;", "Cleared the tangled pathway for her,", "Bent aside the swaying branches,", "Made at night a lodge of branches,", "And a bed with boughs of hemlock,", "And a fire before the doorway", "With the dry cones of the pine-tree.", "", "All the travelling winds went with them,", "O'er the meadows, through the forest;", "All the stars of night looked at them,", "Watched with sleepless eyes their slumber;", "From his ambush in the oak-tree", "Peeped the squirrel, Adjidaumo,", "Watched with eager eyes the lovers;", "And the rabbit, the Wabasso,", "Scampered from the path before them,", "Peering, peeping from his burrow,", "Sat erect upon his haunches,", "Watched with curious eyes the lovers.", "", "Pleasant was the journey homeward!", "All the birds sang loud and sweetly", "Songs of happiness and heart's-ease;", "Sang the bluebird, the Owaissa,", "\"Happy are you, Hiawatha,", "Having such a wife to love you!\"", "Sang the robin, the Opechee,", "\"Happy are you, Laughing Water,", "Having such a noble husband!\"", "", "From the sky the sun benignant", "Looked upon them through the branches,", "Saying to them, \"O my children,", "Love is sunshine, hate is shadow,", "Life is checkered shade and sunshine,", "Rule by love, O Hiawatha!\"", "", "From the sky the moon looked at them,", "Filled the lodge with mystic splendors,", "Whispered to them, \"O my children,", "Day is restless, night is quiet,", "Man imperious, woman feeble;", "Half is mine, although I follow;", "Rule by patience, Laughing Water!\"", "", "Thus it was they journeyed homeward;", "Thus it was that Hiawatha", "To the lodge of old Nokomis", "Brought the moonlight, starlight, firelight,", "Brought the sunshine of his people,", "Minnehaha, Laughing Water,", "Handsomest of all the women", "In the land of the Dacotahs,", "In the land of handsome women." ], "linecount": "284" }, { "title": "Woods in Winter", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "When winter winds are piercing chill,", "And through the hawthorn blows the gale,", "With solemn feet I tread the hill,", "That overbrows the lonely vale.", "", "O'er the bare upland, and away", "Through the long reach of desert woods,", "The embracing sunbeams chastely play,", "And gladden these deep solitudes.", "", "Where, twisted round the barren oak,", "The summer vine in beauty clung,", "And summer winds the stillness broke,", "The crystal icicle is hung.", "", "Where, from their frozen urns, mute springs", "Pour out the river's gradual tide,", "Shrilly the skater's iron rings,", "And voices fill the woodland side.", "", "Alas! how changed from the fair scene,", "When birds sang out their mellow lay,", "And winds were soft, and woods were green,", "And the song ceased not with the day!", "", "But still wild music is abroad,", "Pale, desert woods! within your crowd;", "And gathering winds, in hoarse accord,", "Amid the vocal reeds pipe loud.", "", "Chill airs and wintry winds! my ear", "Has grown familiar with your song;", "I hear it in the opening year,", "I listen, and it cheers me long." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "Hiawatha's Childhood", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Downward through the evening twilight,", "In the days that are forgotten,", "In the unremembered ages,", "From the full moon fell Nokomis,", "Fell the beautiful Nokomis,", "She a wife, but not a mother.", "She was sporting with her women,", "Swinging in a swing of grape-vines,", "When her rival the rejected,", "Full of jealousy and hatred,", "Cut the leafy swing asunder,", "Cut in twain the twisted grape-vines,", "And Nokomis fell affrighted", "Downward through the evening twilight,", "On the Muskoday, the meadow,", "On the prairie full of blossoms.", "\"See! a star falls!\" said the people;", "\"From the sky a star is falling!\"", "There among the ferns and mosses,", "There among the prairie lilies,", "On the Muskoday, the meadow,", "In the moonlight and the starlight,", "Fair Nokomis bore a daughter.", "And she called her name Wenonah,", "As the first-born of her daughters.", "And the daughter of Nokomis", "Grew up like the prairie lilies,", "Grew a tall and slender maiden,", "With the beauty of the moonlight,", "With the beauty of the starlight.", "And Nokomis warned her often,", "Saying oft, and oft repeating,", "\"Oh, beware of Mudjekeewis,", "Of the West-Wind, Mudjekeewis;", "Listen not to what he tells you;", "Lie not down upon the meadow,", "Stoop not down among the lilies,", "Lest the West-Wind come and harm you!\"", "But she heeded not the warning,", "Heeded not those words of wisdom,", "And the West-Wind came at evening,", "Walking lightly o'er the prairie,", "Whispering to the leaves and blossoms,", "Bending low the flowers and grasses,", "Found the beautiful Wenonah,", "Lying there among the lilies,", "Wooed her with his words of sweetness,", "Wooed her with his soft caresses,", "Till she bore a son in sorrow,", "Bore a son of love and sorrow.", "Thus was born my Hiawatha,", "Thus was born the child of wonder;", "But the daughter of Nokomis,", "Hiawatha's gentle mother,", "In her anguish died deserted", "By the West-Wind, false and faithless,", "By the heartless Mudjekeewis.", "For her daughter long and loudly", "Wailed and wept the sad Nokomis;", "\"Oh that I were dead!\" she murmured,", "\"Oh that I were dead, as thou art!", "No more work, and no more weeping,", "Wahonowin! Wahonowin!\"", "By the shores of Gitche Gumee,", "By the shining Big-Sea-Water,", "Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,", "Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.", "Dark behind it rose the forest,", "Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,", "Rose the firs with cones upon them;", "Bright before it beat the water,", "Beat the clear and sunny water,", "Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.", "There the wrinkled old Nokomis", "Nursed the little Hiawatha,", "Rocked him in his linden cradle,", "Bedded soft in moss and rushes,", "Safely bound with reindeer sinews;", "Stilled his fretful wail by saying,", "\"Hush! the Naked Bear will hear thee!\"", "Lulled him into slumber, singing,", "\"Ewa-yea! my little owlet!", "Who is this, that lights the wigwam?", "With his great eyes lights the wigwam?", "Ewa-yea! my little owlet!\"", "Many things Nokomis taught him", "Of the stars that shine in heaven;", "Showed him Ishkoodah, the comet,", "Ishkoodah, with fiery tresses;", "Showed the Death-Dance of the spirits,", "Warriors with their plumes and war-clubs,", "Flaring far away to northward", "In the frosty nights of Winter;", "Showed the broad white road in heaven,", "Pathway of the ghosts, the shadows,", "Running straight across the heavens,", "Crowded with the ghosts, the shadows.", "At the door on summer evenings", "Sat the little Hiawatha;", "Heard the whispering of the pine-trees,", "Heard the lapping of the waters,", "Sounds of music, words of wonder;", "'Minne-wawa!\" said the Pine-trees,", "Mudway-aushka!\" said the water.", "Saw the fire-fly, Wah-wah-taysee,", "Flitting through the dusk of evening,", "With the twinkle of its candle", "Lighting up the brakes and bushes,", "And he sang the song of children,", "Sang the song Nokomis taught him:", "\"Wah-wah-taysee, little fire-fly,", "Little, flitting, white-fire insect,", "Little, dancing, white-fire creature,", "Light me with your little candle,", "Ere upon my bed I lay me,", "Ere in sleep I close my eyelids!\"", "Saw the moon rise from the water", "Rippling, rounding from the water,", "Saw the flecks and shadows on it,", "Whispered, \"What is that, Nokomis?\"", "And the good Nokomis answered:", "\"Once a warrior, very angry,", "Seized his grandmother, and threw her", "Up into the sky at midnight;", "Right against the moon he threw her;", "'T is her body that you see there.\"", "Saw the rainbow in the heaven,", "In the eastern sky, the rainbow,", "Whispered, \"What is that, Nokomis?\"", "And the good Nokomis answered:", "\"'T is the heaven of flowers you see there;", "All the wild-flowers of the forest,", "All the lilies of the prairie,", "When on earth they fade and perish,", "Blossom in that heaven above us.\"", "When he heard the owls at midnight,", "Hooting, laughing in the forest,", "'What is that?\" he cried in terror,", "\"What is that,\" he said, \"Nokomis?\"", "And the good Nokomis answered:", "\"That is but the owl and owlet,", "Talking in their native language,", "Talking, scolding at each other.\"", "Then the little Hiawatha", "Learned of every bird its language,", "Learned their names and all their secrets,", "How they built their nests in Summer,", "Where they hid themselves in Winter,", "Talked with them whene'er he met them,", "Called them \"Hiawatha's Chickens.\"", "Of all beasts he learned the language,", "Learned their names and all their secrets,", "How the beavers built their lodges,", "Where the squirrels hid their acorns,", "How the reindeer ran so swiftly,", "Why the rabbit was so timid,", "Talked with them whene'er he met them,", "Called them \"Hiawatha's Brothers.\"", "Then Iagoo, the great boaster,", "He the marvellous story-teller,", "He the traveller and the talker,", "He the friend of old Nokomis,", "Made a bow for Hiawatha;", "From a branch of ash he made it,", "From an oak-bough made the arrows,", "Tipped with flint, and winged with feathers,", "And the cord he made of deer-skin.", "Then he said to Hiawatha:", "\"Go, my son, into the forest,", "Where the red deer herd together,", "Kill for us a famous roebuck,", "Kill for us a deer with antlers!\"", "Forth into the forest straightway", "All alone walked Hiawatha", "Proudly, with his bow and arrows;", "And the birds sang round him, o'er him,", "\"Do not shoot us, Hiawatha!\"", "Sang the robin, the Opechee,", "Sang the bluebird, the Owaissa,", "\"Do not shoot us, Hiawatha!\"", "Up the oak-tree, close beside him,", "Sprang the squirrel, Adjidaumo,", "In and out among the branches,", "Coughed and chattered from the oak-tree,", "Laughed, and said between his laughing,", "\"Do not shoot me, Hiawatha!\"", "And the rabbit from his pathway", "Leaped aside, and at a distance", "Sat erect upon his haunches,", "Half in fear and half in frolic,", "Saying to the little hunter,", "\"Do not shoot me, Hiawatha!\"", "But he heeded not, nor heard them,", "For his thoughts were with the red deer;", "On their tracks his eyes were fastened,", "Leading downward to the river,", "To the ford across the river,", "And as one in slumber walked he.", "Hidden in the alder-bushes,", "There he waited till the deer came,", "Till he saw two antlers lifted,", "Saw two eyes look from the thicket,", "Saw two nostrils point to windward,", "And a deer came down the pathway,", "Flecked with leafy light and shadow.", "And his heart within him fluttered,", "Trembled like the leaves above him,", "Like the birch-leaf palpitated,", "As the deer came down the pathway.", "Then, upon one knee uprising,", "Hiawatha aimed an arrow;", "Scarce a twig moved with his motion,", "Scarce a leaf was stirred or rustled,", "But the wary roebuck started,", "Stamped with all his hoofs together,", "Listened with one foot uplifted,", "Leaped as if to meet the arrow;", "Ah! the singing, fatal arrow,", "Like a wasp it buzzed and stung him!", "Dead he lay there in the forest,", "By the ford across the river;", "Beat his timid heart no longer,", "But the heart of Hiawatha", "Throbbed and shouted and exulted,", "As he bore the red deer homeward,", "And Iagoo and Nokomis", "Hailed his coming with applauses.", "From the red deer's hide Nokomis", "Made a cloak for Hiawatha,", "From the red deer's flesh Nokomis", "Made a banquet to his honor.", "All the village came and feasted,", "All the guests praised Hiawatha,", "Called him Strong-Heart, Soan-ge-taha!", "Called him Loon-Heart, Mahn-go-taysee!" ], "linecount": "235" }, { "title": "Morituri Salutamus: Poem for the Fiftieth Anniversary", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Tempora labuntur, tacitisque senescimus annis,", "Et fugiunt freno non remorante dies.", "Ovid, Fastorum, Lib. vi.", "\"O Cжsar, we who are about to die", "Salute you!\" was the gladiators' cry", "In the arena, standing face to face", "With death and with the Roman populace.", "O ye familiar scenes,--ye groves of pine,", "That once were mine and are no longer mine,--", "Thou river, widening through the meadows green", "To the vast sea, so near and yet unseen,--", "Ye halls, in whose seclusion and repose", "", "Phantoms of fame, like exhalations, rose", "And vanished,--we who are about to die,", "Salute you; earth and air and sea and sky,", "And the Imperial Sun that scatters down", "His sovereign splendors upon grove and town.", "", "Ye do not answer us! ye do not hear!", "We are forgotten; and in your austere", "And calm indifference, ye little care", "Whether we come or go, or whence or where.", "What passing generations fill these halls,", "What passing voices echo from these walls,", "Ye heed not; we are only as the blast,", "A moment heard, and then forever past.", "", "Not so the teachers who in earlier days", "Led our bewildered feet through learning's maze;", "They answer us--alas! what have I said?", "What greetings come there from the voiceless dead?", "What salutation, welcome, or reply?", "What pressure from the hands that lifeless lie?", "They are no longer here; they all are gone", "Into the land of shadows,--all save one.", "Honor and reverence, and the good repute", "That follows faithful service as its fruit,", "Be unto him, whom living we salute.", "", "The great Italian poet, when he made", "His dreadful journey to the realms of shade,", "Met there the old instructor of his youth,", "And cried in tones of pity and of ruth:", "\"Oh, never from the memory of my heart", "", "Your dear, paternal image shall depart,", "Who while on earth, ere yet by death surprised,", "Taught me how mortals are immortalized;", "How grateful am I for that patient care", "All my life long my language shall declare.\"", "", "To-day we make the poet's words our own,", "And utter them in plaintive undertone;", "Nor to the living only be they said,", "But to the other living called the dead,", "Whose dear, paternal images appear", "Not wrapped in gloom, but robed in sunshine here;", "Whose simple lives, complete and without flaw,", "Were part and parcel of great Nature's law;", "Who said not to their Lord, as if afraid,", "\"Here is thy talent in a napkin laid,\"", "But labored in their sphere, as men who live", "In the delight that work alone can give.", "Peace be to them; eternal peace and rest,", "And the fulfilment of the great behest:", "\"Ye have been faithful over a few things,", "Over ten cities shall ye reign as kings.\"", "", "And ye who fill the places we once filled,", "And follow in the furrows that we tilled,", "Young men, whose generous hearts are beating high,", "We who are old, and are about to die,", "Salute you; hail you; take your hands in ours,", "And crown you with our welcome as with flowers!", "", "How beautiful is youth! how bright it gleams", "With its illusions, aspirations, dreams!", "Book of Beginnings, Story without End,", "Each maid a heroine, and each man a friend!", "Aladdin's Lamp, and Fortunatus' Purse,", "That holds the treasures of the universe!", "All possibilities are in its hands,", "No danger daunts it, and no foe withstands;", "In its sublime audacity of faith,", "\"Be thou removed!\" it to the mountain saith,", "And with ambitious feet, secure and proud,", "Ascends the ladder leaning on the cloud!", "", "As ancient Priam at the Scжan gate", "Sat on the walls of Troy in regal state", "With the old men, too old and weak to fight,", "Chirping like grasshoppers in their delight", "To see the embattled hosts, with spear and shield,", "Of Trojans and Achaians in the field;", "So from the snowy summits of our years", "We see you in the plain, as each appears,", "And question of you; asking, \"Who is he", "That towers above the others? Which may be", "Atreides, Menelaus, Odysseus,", "Ajax the great, or bold Idomeneus?\"", "", "Let him not boast who puts his armor on", "As he who puts it off, the battle done.", "Study yourselves; and most of all note well", "Wherein kind Nature meant you to excel.", "Not every blossom ripens into fruit;", "Minerva, the inventress of the flute,", "Flung it aside, when she her face surveyed", "Distorted in a fountain as she played;", "The unlucky Marsyas found it, and his fate", "Was one to make the bravest hesitate.", "", "", "Write on your doors the saying wise and old,", "\"Be bold! be bold!\" and everywhere, \"Be bold;", "Be not too bold!\" Yet better the excess", "Than the defect; better the more than less;", "Better like Hector in the field to die,", "Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly.", "", "", "And now, my classmates; ye remaining few", "That number not the half of those we knew,", "Ye, against whose familiar names not yet", "The fatal asterisk of death is set,", "Ye I salute! The horologe of Time", "Strikes the half-century with a solemn chime,", "And summons us together once again,", "The joy of meeting not unmixed with pain.", "", "", "Where are the others? Voices from the deep", "Caverns of darkness answer me: \"They sleep!\"", "I name no names; instinctively I feel", "Each at some well-remembered grave will kneel,", "And from the inscription wipe the weeds and moss,", "For every heart best knoweth its own loss.", "I see their scattered gravestones gleaming white", "Through the pale dusk of the impending night;", "O'er all alike the impartial sunset throws", "Its golden lilies mingled with the rose;", "We give to each a tender thought, and pass", "Out of the graveyards with their tangled grass,", "Unto these scenes frequented by our feet", "When we were young, and life was fresh and sweet.", "", "", "What shall I say to you? What can I say", "Better than silence is? When I survey", "This throng of faces turned to meet my own,", "Friendly and fair, and yet to me unknown,", "Transformed the very landscape seems to be;", "It is the same, yet not the same to me.", "So many memories crowd upon my brain,", "So many ghosts are in the wooded plain,", "I fain would steal away, with noiseless tread,", "As from a house where some one lieth dead.", "I cannot go;--I pause;--I hesitate;", "My feet reluctant linger at the gate;", "As one who struggles in a troubled dream", "To speak and cannot, to myself I seem.", "", "", "Vanish the dream! Vanish the idle fears!", "Vanish the rolling mists of fifty years!", "Whatever time or space may intervene,", "I will not be a stranger in this scene.", "Here every doubt, all indecision, ends;", "Hail, my companions, comrades, classmates, friends!", "", "", "Ah me! the fifty years since last we met", "Seem to me fifty folios bound and set", "By Time, the great transcriber, on his shelves,", "Wherein are written the histories of ourselves.", "What tragedies, what comedies, are there;", "What joy and grief, what rapture and despair!", "What chronicles of triumph and defeat,", "Of struggle, and temptation, and retreat!", "What records of regrets, and doubts, and fears!", "What pages blotted, blistered by our tears!", "What lovely landscapes on the margin shine,", "What sweet, angelic faces, what divine", "And holy images of love and trust,", "Undimmed by age, unsoiled by damp or dust!", "Whose hand shall dare to open and explore", "These volumes, closed and clasped forevermore?", "Not mine. With reverential feet I pass;", "I hear a voice that cries, \"Alas! alas!", "Whatever hath been written shall remain,", "Nor be erased nor written o'er again;", "The unwritten only still belongs to thee:", "Take heed, and ponder well what that shall be.\"", "", "", "As children frightened by a thunder-cloud", "Are reassured if some one reads aloud", "A tale of wonder, with enchantment fraught,", "Or wild adventure, that diverts their thought,", "Let me endeavor with a tale to chase", "The gathering shadows of the time and place,", "And banish what we all too deeply feel", "Wholly to say, or wholly to conceal.", "", "", "In mediжval Rome, I know not where,", "There stood an image with its arm in air,", "And on its lifted finger, shining clear,", "A golden ring with the device, \"Strike here!\"", "Greatly the people wondered, though none guessed", "The meaning that these words but half expressed,", "Until a learned clerk, who at noonday", "With downcast eyes was passing on his way,", "Paused, and observed the spot, and marked it well,", "Whereon the shadow of the finger fell;", "And, coming back at midnight, delved, and found", "A secret stairway leading underground.", "Down this he passed into a spacious hall,", "Lit by a flaming jewel on the wall;", "And opposite, in threatening attitude,", "With bow and shaft a brazen statue stood.", "Upon its forehead, like a coronet,", "Were these mysterious words of menace set:", "\"That which I am, I am; my fatal aim", "None can escape, not even yon luminous flame!\"", "", "", "Midway the hall was a fair table placed,", "With cloth of gold, and golden cups enchased", "With rubies, and the plates and knives were gold,", "And gold the bread and viands manifold.", "Around it, silent, motionless, and sad,", "Were seated gallant knights in armor clad,", "And ladies beautiful with plume and zone,", "But they were stone, their hearts within were stone;", "And the vast hall was filled in every part", "With silent crowds, stony in face and heart.", "", "", "Long at the scene, bewildered and amazed", "The trembling clerk in speechless wonder gazed;", "Then from the table, by his greed made bold,", "He seized a goblet and a knife of gold,", "And suddenly from their seats the guests upsprang,", "The vaulted ceiling with loud clamors rang,", "The archer sped his arrow, at their call,", "Shattering the lambent jewel on the wall,", "And all was dark around and overhead;--", "Stark on the floor the luckless clerk lay dead!", "", "", "The writer of this legend then records", "Its ghostly application in these words:", "The image is the Adversary old,", "Whose beckoning finger points to realms of gold;", "Our lusts and passions are the downward stair", "That leads the soul from a diviner air;", "The archer, Death; the flaming jewel, Life;", "Terrestrial goods, the goblet and the knife;", "The knights and ladies, all whose flesh and bone", "By avarice have been hardened into stone;", "The clerk, the scholar whom the love of pelf", "Tempts from his books and from his nobler self.", "", "", "The scholar and the world! The endless strife,", "The discord in the harmonies of life!", "The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,", "And all the sweet serenity of books;", "The market-place, the eager love of gain,", "Whose aim is vanity, and whose end is pain!", "", "", "But why, you ask me, should this tale be told", "To men grown old, or who are growing old?", "It is too late! Ah, nothing is too late", "Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate.", "Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles", "Wrote his grand Oedipus, and Simonides", "Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,", "When each had numbered more than fourscore years,", "And Theophrastus, at fourscore and ten,", "Had but begun his \"Characters of Men.\"", "Chaucer, at Woodstock with the nightingales,", "At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;", "Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,", "Completed Faust when eighty years were past.", "These are indeed exceptions; but they show", "How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow", "Into the arctic regions of our lives,", "Where little else than life itself survives.", "As the barometer foretells the storm", "While still the skies are clear, the weather warm", "So something in us, as old age draws near,", "Betrays the pressure of the atmosphere.", "The nimble mercury, ere we are aware,", "Descends the elastic ladder of the air;", "The telltale blood in artery and vein", "Sinks from its higher levels in the brain;", "Whatever poet, orator, or sage", "May say of it, old age is still old age.", "It is the waning, not the crescent moon;", "The dusk of evening, not the blaze of noon;", "It is not strength, but weakness; not desire,", "But its surcease; not the fierce heat of fire,", "The burning and consuming element,", "But that of ashes and of embers spent,", "In which some living sparks we still discern,", "Enough to warm, but not enough to burn.", "", "", "What then? Shall we sit idly down and say", "The night hath come; it is no longer day?", "The night hath not yet come; we are not quite", "Cut off from labor by the failing light;", "Something remains for us to do or dare;", "Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear;", "Not Oedipus Coloneus, or Greek Ode,", "Or tales of pilgrims that one morning rode", "Out of the gateway of the Tabard Inn,", "But other something, would we but begin;", "For age is opportunity no less", "Than youth itself, though in another dress,", "And as the evening twilight fades away", "The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day." ], "linecount": "288" }, { "title": "Footsteps of Angels", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "When the hours of Day are numbered,", "And the voices of the Night", "Wake the better soul, that slumbered,", "To a holy, calm delight;", "", "Ere the evening lamps are lighted,", "And, like phantoms grim and tall,", "Shadows from the fitful firelight", "Dance upon the parlor wall;", "", "Then the forms of the departed", "Enter at the open door;", "The beloved, the true-hearted,", "Come to visit me once more;", "", "He, the young and strong, who cherished", "Noble longings for the strife,", "By the roadside fell and perished,", "Weary with the march of life!", "", "They, the holy ones and weakly,", "Who the cross of suffering bore,", "Folded their pale hands so meekly,", "Spake with us on earth no more!", "", "And with them the Being Beauteous,", "Who unto my youth was given,", "More than all things else to love me,", "And is now a saint in heaven.", "", "With a slow and noiseless footstep", "Comes that messenger divine,", "Takes the vacant chair beside me,", "Lays her gentle hand in mine.", "", "And she sits and gazes at me", "With those deep and tender eyes,", "Like the stars, so still and saint-like,", "Looking downward from the skies.", "", "Uttered not, yet comprehended,", "Is the spirit's voiceless prayer,", "Soft rebukes, in blessings ended,", "Breathing from her lips of air.", "", "Oh, though oft depressed and lonely,", "All my fears are laid aside,", "If I but remember only", "Such as these have lived and died!" ], "linecount": "40" }, { "title": "The Reaper and the Flowers", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "There is a Reaper, whose name is Death,", "And, with his sickle keen,", "He reaps the bearded grain at a breath,", "And the flowers that grow between.", "", "\"Shall I have naught that is fair?\" saith he;", "\"Have naught but the bearded grain?", "Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me,", "I will give them all back again.\"", "", "He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes,", "He kissed their drooping leaves;", "It was for the Lord of Paradise", "He bound them in his sheaves.", "", "\"My Lord has need of these flowerets gay,\"", "The Reaper said, and smiled;", "\"Dear tokens of the earth are they,", "Where he was once a child.", "", "\"They shall all bloom in fields of light,", "Transplanted by my care,", "And saints, upon their garments white,", "These sacred blossoms wear.\"", "", "And the mother gave, in tears and pain,", "The flowers she most did love;", "She knew she should find them all again", "In the fields of light above.", "", "O, not in cruelty, not in wrath,", "The Reaper came that day;", "'T was an angel visited the green earth,", "And took the flowers away." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "RAIN IN SUMMER", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "How beautiful is the rain!", "After the dust and heat,", "In the broad and fiery street,", "In the narrow lane,", "How beautiful is the rain!", "", "How it clatters along the roofs,", "Like the tramp of hoofs", "How it gushes and struggles out", "From the throat of the overflowing spout!", "", "Across the window-pane", "It pours and pours;", "And swift and wide,", "With a muddy tide,", "Like a river down the gutter roars", "The rain, the welcome rain!", "", "The sick man from his chamber looks", "At the twisted brooks;", "He can feel the cool", "Breath of each little pool;", "His fevered brain", "Grows calm again,", "And he breathes a blessing on the rain.", "", "From the neighboring school", "Come the boys,", "With more than their wonted noise", "And commotion;", "And down the wet streets", "Sail their mimic fleets,", "Till the treacherous pool", "Ingulfs them in its whirling", "And turbulent ocean.", "", "In the country, on every side,", "Where far and wide,", "Like a leopard's tawny and spotted hide,", "Stretches the plain,", "To the dry grass and the drier grain", "How welcome is the rain!", "", "In the furrowed land", "The toilsome and patient oxen stand;", "Lifting the yoke encumbered head,", "With their dilated nostrils spread,", "They silently inhale", "The clover-scented gale,", "And the vapors that arise", "From the well-watered and smoking soil.", "For this rest in the furrow after toil", "Their large and lustrous eyes", "Seem to thank the Lord,", "More than man's spoken word.", "", "Near at hand,", "From under the sheltering trees,", "The farmer sees", "His pastures, and his fields of grain,", "As they bend their tops", "To the numberless beating drops", "Of the incessant rain.", "He counts it as no sin", "That he sees therein", "Only his own thrift and gain.", "", "These, and far more than these,", "The Poet sees!", "He can behold", "Aquarius old", "Walking the fenceless fields of air;", "And from each ample fold", "Of the clouds about him rolled", "Scattering everywhere", "The showery rain,", "As the farmer scatters his grain.", "", "He can behold", "Things manifold", "That have not yet been wholly told,--", "Have not been wholly sung nor said.", "For his thought, that never stops,", "Follows the water-drops", "Down to the graves of the dead,", "Down through chasms and gulfs profound,", "To the dreary fountain-head", "Of lakes and rivers under ground;", "And sees them, when the rain is done,", "On the bridge of colors seven", "Climbing up once more to heaven,", "Opposite the setting sun.", "", "Thus the Seer,", "With vision clear,", "Sees forms appear and disappear,", "In the perpetual round of strange,", "Mysterious change", "From birth to death, from death to birth,", "From earth to heaven, from heaven to earth;", "Till glimpses more sublime", "Of things, unseen before,", "Unto his wondering eyes reveal", "The Universe, as an immeasurable wheel", "Turning forevermore", "In the rapid and rushing river of Time." ], "linecount": "96" }, { "title": "THE ARSENAL AT SPRINGFIELD", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling,", "Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms;", "But front their silent pipes no anthem pealing", "Startles the villages with strange alarms.", "", "Ah! what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary,", "When the death-angel touches those swift keys", "What loud lament and dismal Miserere", "Will mingle with their awful symphonies", "", "I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus,", "The cries of agony, the endless groan,", "Which, through the ages that have gone before us,", "In long reverberations reach our own.", "", "On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer,", "Through Cimbric forest roars the Norseman's song,", "And loud, amid the universal clamor,", "O'er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong.", "", "I hear the Florentine, who from his palace", "Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din,", "And Aztec priests upon their teocallis", "Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent's skin;", "", "The tumult of each sacked and burning village;", "The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns;", "The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage;", "The wail of famine in beleaguered towns;", "", "The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder,", "The rattling musketry, the clashing blade;", "And ever and anon, in tones of thunder,", "The diapason of the cannonade.", "", "Is it, O man, with such discordant noises,", "With such accursed instruments as these,", "Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices,", "And jarrest the celestial harmonies?", "", "Were half the power, that fills the world with terror,", "Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts,", "Given to redeem the human mind from error,", "There were no need of arsenals or forts:", "", "The warrior's name would be a name abhorred!", "And every nation, that should lift again", "Its hand against a brother, on its forehead", "Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain!", "", "Down the dark future, through long generations,", "The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease;", "And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,", "I hear once more the voice of Christ say, \"Peace!\"", "", "Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals", "The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies!", "But beautiful as songs of the immortals,", "The holy melodies of love arise." ], "linecount": "48" }, { "title": "Christmas Bells", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "\"I heard the bells on Christmas Day", "Their old familiar carols play,", "And wild and sweet", "The words repeat", "Of peace on earth, good-will to men!", "", "", "And thought how, as the day had come,", "The belfries of all Christendom", "Had rolled along", "The unbroken song", "Of peace on earth, good-will to men!", "", "", "Till, ringing, singing on its way,", "The world revolved from night to day,", "A voice, a chime", "A chant sublime", "Of peace on earth, good-will to men!", "", "", "Then from each black accursed mouth", "The cannon thundered in the South,", "And with the sound", "The carols drowned", "Of peace on earth, good-will to men!", "", "", "It was as if an earthquake rent", "The hearth-stones of a continent,", "And made forlorn", "The households born", "Of peace on earth, good-will to men!", "", "", "And in despair I bowed my head;", "\"There is no peace on earth,\" I said;", "\"For hate is strong,", "And mocks the song", "Of peace on earth, good-will to men!\"", "", "", "Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:", "\"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!", "The Wrong shall fail,", "The Right prevail,", "With peace on earth, good-will to men!\"" ], "linecount": "35" }, { "title": "The Goblet of Life", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Filled is Life's goblet to the brim;", "And though my eyes with tears are dim,", "I see its sparkling bubbles swim,", "And chant a melancholy hymn", "With solemn voice and slow.", "", "No purple flowers,--no garlands green,", "Conceal the goblet's shade or sheen,", "Nor maddening draughts of Hippocrene,", "Like gleams of sunshine, flash between", "Thick leaves of mistletoe.", "", "This goblet, wrought with curious art,", "Is filled with waters, that upstart,", "When the deep fountains of the heart,", "By strong convulsions rent apart,", "Are running all to waste.", "", "And as it mantling passes round,", "With fennel is it wreathed and crowned,", "Whose seed and foliage sun-imbrowned", "Are in its waters steeped and drowned,", "And give a bitter taste.", "", "Above the lowly plants it towers,", "The fennel, with its yellow flowers,", "And in an earlier age than ours", "Was gifted with the wondrous powers,", "Lost vision to restore.", "", "It gave new strength, and fearless mood;", "And gladiators, fierce and rude,", "Mingled it in their daily food;", "And he who battled and subdued,", "A wreath of fennel wore.", "", "Then in Life's goblet freely press,", "The leaves that give it bitterness,", "Nor prize the colored waters less,", "For in thy darkness and distress", "New light and strength they give!", "", "And he who has not learned to know", "How false its sparkling buhbles show,", "How bitter are the drops of woe,", "With which its brim may overflow,", "He has not learned to live.", "", "The prayer of Ajax was for light;", "Through all that dark and desperate fight", "The blackness of that noonday night", "He asked but the return of sight,", "To see his foeman's face.", "", "Let our unceasing, earnest prayer", "Be, too, for light,--for strength to bear", "Our portion of the weight of care,", "That crushes into dumb despair", "One half the human race.", "", "O suffering, sad humanity!", "O ye afflicted one; who lie", "Steeped to the lips in misery,", "Longing, and yet afraid to die,", "Patient, though sorely tried !", "", "I pledge you in this cup of grief,", "Where floats the fennel's bitter leaf !", "The Battle of our Life is briet", "The alarm,--the struggle,--the relief,", "Then sleep we side by side." ], "linecount": "60" }, { "title": "Loss And Gain", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "When I compare", "What I have lost with what I have gained,", "What I have missed with what attained,", "Little room do I find for pride.", "", "I am aware", "How many days have been idly spent;", "How like an arrow the good intent", "Has fallen short or been turned aside.", "", "But who shall dare", "To measure loss and gain in this wise?", "Defeat may be victory in disguise;", "The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "The Light of Stars", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "The night is come, but not too soon;", "And sinking silently,", "All silently, the little moon", "Drops down behind the sky.", "", "There is no light in earth or heaven", "But the cold light of stars;", "And the first watch of night is given", "To the red planet Mars.", "", "Is it the tender star of love?", "The star of love and dreams?", "O no! from that blue tent above,", "A hero's armor gleams.", "", "And earnest thoughts within me rise,", "When I behold afar,", "Suspended in the evening skies,", "The shield of that red star.", "", "O star of strength! I see thee stand", "And smile upon my pain;", "Thou beckonest with thy mailed hand,", "And I am strong again.", "", "Within my breast there is no light", "But the cold light of stars;", "I give the first watch of the night", "To the red planet Mars.", "", "The star of the unconquered will,", "He rises in my breast,", "Serene, and resolute, and still,", "And calm, and self-possessed.", "", "And thou, too, whosoe'er thou art,", "That readest this brief psalm,", "As one by one thy hopes depart,", "Be resolute and calm.", "", "O fear not in a world like this,", "And thou shalt know erelong,", "Know how sublime a thing it is", "To suffer and be strong." ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "The Sound of the Sea", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,", "And round the pebbly beaches far and wide", "I heard the first wave of the rising tide", "Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;", "A voice out of the silence of the deep,", "A sound mysteriously multiplied", "As of a cataract from the mountain's side,", "Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.", "So comes to us at times, from the unknown", "And inaccessible solitudes of being,", "The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;", "And inspirations, that we deem our own,", "Are some divine of foreshadowing and foreseeing", "Of things beyond our reason or control." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Children", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Come to me, O ye children!", "For I hear you at your play,", "And the questions that perplexed me", "Have vanished quite away.", "", "Ye open the eastern windows,", "That look towards the sun,", "Where thoughts are singing swallows", "And the brooks of morning run.", "", "In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,", "In your thoughts the brooklet's flow,", "But in mine is the wind of Autumn", "And the first fall of the snow.", "", "Ah! what would the world be to us", "If the children were no more?", "We should dread the desert behind us", "Worse than the dark before.", "", "What the leaves are to the forest,", "With light and air for food,", "Ere their sweet and tender juices", "Have been hardened into wood, --", "", "That to the world are children;", "Through them it feels the glow", "Of a brighter and sunnier climate", "Than reaches the trunks below.", "", "Come to me, O ye children!", "And whisper in my ear", "What the birds and the winds are singing", "In your sunny atmosphere.", "", "For what are all our contrivings,", "And the wisdom of our books,", "When compared with your caresses,", "And the gladness of your looks?", "", "Ye are better than all the ballads", "That ever were sung or said;", "For ye are living poems,", "And all the rest are dead." ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "An April Day", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "When the warm sun, that brings", "Seed-time and harvest, has returned again,", "'T is sweet to visit the still wood, where springs", "The first flower of the plain.", "", "I love the season well,", "When forest glades are teeming with bright forms,", "Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell", "The coming-on of storms.", "", "From the earth's loosened mould", "The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives;", "Though stricken to the heart with winter's cold,", "The drooping tree revives.", "", "The softly-warbled song", "Comes from the pleasant woods, and colored wings", "Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along", "The forest openings.", "", "When the bright sunset fills", "The silver woods with light, the green slope throws", "Its shadows in the hollows of the hills,", "And wide the upland glows.", "", "And when the eve is born,", "In the blue lake the sky, o'er-reaching far,", "Is hollowed out and the moon dips her horn,", "And twinkles many a star.", "", "Inverted in the tide", "Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows throw,", "And the fair trees look over, side by side,", "And see themselves below.", "", "Sweet April! many a thought", "Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed;", "Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought,", "Life's golden fruit is shed." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "My Lost Youth", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Often I think of the beautiful town", "That is seated by the sea;", "Often in thought go up and down", "The pleasant streets of that dear old town,", "And my youth comes back to me.", "And a verse of a Lapland song", "Is haunting my memory still:", "\"A boy's will is the wind's will,", "And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.\"", "", "I can see the shadowy lines of its trees,", "And catch, in sudden gleams,", "The sheen of the far-surrounding seas,", "And islands that were the Hesperides", "Of all my boyish dreams.", "And the burden of that old song,", "It murmurs and whispers still:", "\"A boy's will is the wind's will,", "And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.\"", "", "I remember the black wharves and the ships,", "And the sea-tides tossing free;", "And Spanish sailors with bearded lips,", "And the beauty and mystery of the ships,", "And the magic of the sea.", "And the voice of that wayward song", "Is singing and saying still:", "\"A boy's will is the wind's will,", "And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.\"", "", "I remember the bulwarks by the shore,", "And the fort upon the hill;", "The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar,", "The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er,", "And the bugle wild and shrill.", "And the music of that old song", "Throbs in my memory still:", "\"A boy's will is the wind's will,", "And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.\"", "", "I remember the sea-fight far away,", "How it thundered o'er the tide!", "And the dead captains, as they lay", "In their graves, o'erlooking the tranquil bay", "Where they in battle died.", "And the sound of that mournful song", "Goes through me with a thrill:", "\"A boy's will is the wind's will,", "And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.\"", "", "I can see the breezy dome of groves,", "The shadows of Deering's Woods;", "And the friendships old and the early loves", "Come back with a Sabbath sound, as of doves", "In quiet neighborhoods.", "And the verse of that sweet old song,", "It flutters and murmurs still:", "\"A boy's will is the wind's will,", "And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.\"", "", "I remember the gleams and glooms that dart", "Across the school-boy's brain;", "The song and the silence in the heart,", "That in part are prophecies, and in part", "Are longings wild and vain.", "And the voice of that fitful song", "Sings on, and is never still:", "\"A boy's will is the wind's will,", "And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.\"", "", "There are things of which I may not speak;", "There are dreams that cannot die;", "There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,", "And bring a pallor into the cheek,", "And a mist before the eye.", "And the words of that fatal song", "Come over me like a chill:", "\"A boy's will is the wind's will,", "And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.\"", "", "Strange to me now are the forms I meet", "When I visit the dear old town;", "But the native air is pure and sweet,", "And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street,", "As they balance up and down,", "Are singing the beautiful song,", "Are sighing and whispering still:", "\"A boy's will is the wind's will,", "And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.\"", "", "And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair,", "And with joy that is almost pain", "My heart goes back to wander there,", "And among the dreams of the days that were,", "I find my lost youth again.", "And the strange and beautiful song,", "The groves are repeating it still:", "\"A boy's will is the wind's will,", "And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.\"" ], "linecount": "90" }, { "title": "Flowers", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Spake full well, in language quaint and olden,", "One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine,", "When he called the flowers, so blue and golden,", "Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine.", "", "Stars they are, wherein we read our history,", "As astrologers and seers of eld;", "Yet not wrapped about with awful mystery,", "Like the burning stars, which they beheld.", "", "Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous,", "God hath written in those stars above;", "But not less in the bright flowerets under us", "Stands the revelation of his love.", "", "Bright and glorious is that revelation,", "Written all over this great world of ours;", "Making evident our own creation,", "In these stars of earth, these golden flowers.", "", "And the Poet, faithful and far-seeing,", "Sees, alike in stars and flowers, a part", "Of the self-same, universal being,", "Which is throbbing in his brain and heart.", "", "Gorgeous flowerets in the sunlight shining,", "Blossoms flaunting in the eye of day,", "Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining,", "Buds that open only to decay;", "", "Brilliant hopes, all woven in gorgeous tissues,", "Flaunting gayly in the golden light;", "Large desires, with most uncertain issues,", "Tender wishes, blossoming at night!", "", "", "These in flowers and men are more than seeming;", "Workings are they of the self-same powers,", "Which the Poet, in no idle dreaming,", "Seeth in himself and in the flowers.", "", "Everywhere about us are they glowing,", "Some like stars, to tell us Spring is born;", "Others, their blue eyes with tears o'er-flowing,", "Stand like Ruth amid the golden corn;", "", "Not alone in Spring's armorial bearing,", "And in Summer's green-emblazoned field,", "But in arms of brave old Autumn's wearing,", "In the centre of his brazen shield;", "", "Not alone in meadows and green alleys,", "On the mountain-top, and by the brink", "Of sequestered pools in woodland valleys,", "Where the slaves of nature stoop to drink;", "", "Not alone in her vast dome of glory,", "Not on graves of bird and beast alone,", "But in old cathedrals, high and hoary,", "On the tombs of heroes, carved in stone;", "", "In the cottage of the rudest peasant,", "In ancestral homes, whose crumbling towers,", "Speaking of the Past unto the Present,", "Tell us of the ancient Games of Flowers;", "", "In all places, then, and in all seasons,", "Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings,", "Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons,", "How akin they are to human things.", "", "And with childlike, credulous affection", "We behold their tender buds expand;", "Emblems of our own great resurrection,", "Emblems of the bright and better land." ], "linecount": "60" }, { "title": "Introduction To The Song Of Hiawatha", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Should you ask me,", "whence these stories?", "Whence these legends and traditions,", "With the odors of the forest", "With the dew and damp of meadows,", "With the curling smoke of wigwams,", "With the rushing of great rivers,", "With their frequent repetitions,", "And their wild reverberations", "As of thunder in the mountains?", "I should answer, I should tell you,", "\"From the forests and the prairies,", "From the great lakes of the Northland,", "From the land of the Ojibways,", "From the land of the Dacotahs,", "From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands", "Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,", "Feeds among the reeds and rushes.", "I repeat them as I heard them", "From the lips of Nawadaha,", "The musician, the sweet singer.\"", "Should you ask where Nawadaha", "Found these songs so wild and wayward,", "Found these legends and traditions,", "I should answer, I should tell you,", "\"In the bird's-nests of the forest,", "In the lodges of the beaver,", "In the hoofprint of the bison,", "In the eyry of the eagle!", "\"All the wild-fowl sang them to him,", "In the moorlands and the fen-lands,", "In the melancholy marshes;", "Chetowaik, the plover, sang them,", "Mahng, the loon, the wild-goose, Wawa,", "The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,", "And the grouse, the Mushkodasa!\"", "If still further you should ask me,", "Saying, \"Who was Nawadaha?", "Tell us of this Nawadaha,\"", "I should answer your inquiries", "Straightway in such words as follow.", "\"In the vale of Tawasentha,", "In the green and silent valley,", "By the pleasant water-courses,", "Dwelt the singer Nawadaha.", "Round about the Indian village", "Spread the meadows and the corn-fields,", "And beyond them stood the forest,", "Stood the groves of singing pine-trees,", "Green in Summer, white in Winter,", "Ever sighing, ever singing.", "\"And the pleasant water-courses,", "You could trace them through the valley,", "By the rushing in the Spring-time,", "By the alders in the Summer,", "By the white fog in the Autumn,", "By the black line in the Winter;", "And beside them dwelt the singer,", "In the vale of Tawasentha,", "In the green and silent valley.", "\"There he sang of Hiawatha,", "Sang the Song of Hiawatha,", "Sang his wondrous birth and being,", "How he prayed and how be fasted,", "How he lived, and toiled, and suffered,", "That the tribes of men might prosper,", "That he might advance his people!\"", "Ye who love the haunts of Nature,", "Love the sunshine of the meadow,", "Love the shadow of the forest,", "Love the wind among the branches,", "And the rain-shower and the snow-storm,", "And the rushing of great rivers", "Through their palisades of pine-trees,", "And the thunder in the mountains,", "Whose innumerable echoes", "Flap like eagles in their eyries;-", "Listen to these wild traditions,", "To this Song of Hiawatha!", "Ye who love a nation's legends,", "Love the ballads of a people,", "That like voices from afar off", "Call to us to pause and listen,", "Speak in tones so plain and childlike,", "Scarcely can the ear distinguish", "Whether they are sung or spoken;-", "Listen to this Indian Legend,", "To this Song of Hiawatha!", "Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple,", "Who have faith in God and Nature,", "Who believe that in all ages", "Every human heart is human,", "That in even savage bosoms", "There are longings, yearnings, strivings", "For the good they comprehend not,", "That the feeble hands and helpless,", "Groping blindly in the darkness,", "Touch God's right hand in that darkness", "And are lifted up and strengthened;-", "Listen to this simple story,", "To this Song of Hiawatha!", "Ye, who sometimes, in your rambles", "Through the green lanes of the country,", "Where the tangled barberry-bushes", "Hang their tufts of crimson berries", "Over stone walls gray with mosses,", "Pause by some neglected graveyard,", "For a while to muse, and ponder", "On a half-effaced inscription,", "Written with little skill of song-craft,", "Homely phrases, but each letter", "Full of hope and yet of heart-break,", "Full of all the tender pathos", "Of the Here and the Hereafter;", "Stay and read this rude inscription,", "Read this Song of Hiawatha!" ], "linecount": "116" }, { "title": "The Peace-Pipe", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "On the Mountains of the Prairie,", "On the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry,", "Gitche Manito, the mighty,", "He the Master of Life, descending,", "On the red crags of the quarry", "Stood erect, and called the nations,", "Called the tribes of men together.", "From his footprints flowed a river,", "Leaped into the light of morning,", "O'er the precipice plunging downward", "Gleamed like Ishkoodah, the comet.", "And the Spirit, stooping earthward,", "With his finger on the meadow", "Traced a winding pathway for it,", "Saying to it, \"Run in this way!\"", "From the red stone of the quarry", "With his hand he broke a fragment,", "Moulded it into a pipe-head,", "Shaped and fashioned it with figures;", "From the margin of the river", "Took a long reed for a pipe-stem,", "With its dark green leaves upon it;", "Filled the pipe with bark of willow,", "With the bark of the red willow;", "Breathed upon the neighboring forest,", "Made its great boughs chafe together,", "Till in flame they burst and kindled;", "And erect upon the mountains,", "Gitche Manito, the mighty,", "Smoked the calumet, the Peace-Pipe,", "As a signal to the nations.", "And the smoke rose slowly, slowly,", "Through the tranquil air of morning,", "First a single line of darkness,", "Then a denser, bluer vapor,", "Then a snow-white cloud unfolding,", "Like the tree-tops of the forest,", "Ever rising, rising, rising,", "Till it touched the top of heaven,", "Till it broke against the heaven,", "And rolled outward all around it.", "From the Vale of Tawasentha,", "From the Valley of Wyoming,", "From the groves of Tuscaloosa,", "From the far-off Rocky Mountains,", "From the Northern lakes and rivers", "All the tribes beheld the signal,", "Saw the distant smoke ascending,", "The Pukwana of the Peace-Pipe.", "And the Prophets of the nations", "Said: \"Behold it, the Pukwana!", "By the signal of the Peace-Pipe,", "Bending like a wand of willow,", "Waving like a hand that beckons,", "Gitche Manito, the mighty,", "Calls the tribes of men together,", "Calls the warriors to his council!\"", "Down the rivers, o'er the prairies,", "Came the warriors of the nations,", "Came the Delawares and Mohawks,", "Came the Choctaws and Camanches,", "Came the Shoshonies and Blackfeet,", "Came the Pawnees and Omahas,", "Came the Mandans and Dacotahs,", "Came the Hurons and Ojibways,", "All the warriors drawn together", "By the signal of the Peace-Pipe,", "To the Mountains of the Prairie,", "To the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry,", "And they stood there on the meadow,", "With their weapons and their war-gear,", "Painted like the leaves of Autumn,", "Painted like the sky of morning,", "Wildly glaring at each other;", "In their faces stem defiance,", "In their hearts the feuds of ages,", "The hereditary hatred,", "The ancestral thirst of vengeance.", "Gitche Manito, the mighty,", "The creator of the nations,", "Looked upon them with compassion,", "With paternal love and pity;", "Looked upon their wrath and wrangling", "But as quarrels among children,", "But as feuds and fights of children!", "Over them he stretched his right hand,", "To subdue their stubborn natures,", "To allay their thirst and fever,", "By the shadow of his right hand;", "Spake to them with voice majestic", "As the sound of far-off waters,", "Falling into deep abysses,", "Warning, chiding, spake in this wise :", "\"O my children! my poor children!", "Listen to the words of wisdom,", "Listen to the words of warning,", "From the lips of the Great Spirit,", "From the Master of Life, who made you!", "\"I have given you lands to hunt in,", "I have given you streams to fish in,", "I have given you bear and bison,", "I have given you roe and reindeer,", "I have given you brant and beaver,", "Filled the marshes full of wild-fowl,", "Filled the rivers full of fishes:", "Why then are you not contented?", "Why then will you hunt each other?", "\"I am weary of your quarrels,", "Weary of your wars and bloodshed,", "Weary of your prayers for vengeance,", "Of your wranglings and dissensions;", "All your strength is in your union,", "All your danger is in discord;", "Therefore be at peace henceforward,", "And as brothers live together.", "\"I will send a Prophet to you,", "A Deliverer of the nations,", "Who shall guide you and shall teach you,", "Who shall toil and suffer with you.", "If you listen to his counsels,", "You will multiply and prosper;", "If his warnings pass unheeded,", "You will fade away and perish!", "\"Bathe now in the stream before you,", "Wash the war-paint from your faces,", "Wash the blood-stains from your fingers,", "Bury your war-clubs and your weapons,", "Break the red stone from this quarry,", "Mould and make it into Peace-Pipes,", "Take the reeds that grow beside you,", "Deck them with your brightest feathers,", "Smoke the calumet together,", "And as brothers live henceforward!\"", "Then upon the ground the warriors", "Threw their cloaks and shirts of deer-skin,", "Threw their weapons and their war-gear,", "Leaped into the rushing river,", "Washed the war-paint from their faces.", "Clear above them flowed the water,", "Clear and limpid from the footprints", "Of the Master of Life descending;", "Dark below them flowed the water,", "Soiled and stained with streaks of crimson,", "As if blood were mingled with it!", "From the river came the warriors,", "Clean and washed from all their war-paint;", "On the banks their clubs they buried,", "Buried all their warlike weapons.", "Gitche Manito, the mighty,", "The Great Spirit, the creator,", "Smiled upon his helpless children!", "And in silence all the warriors", "Broke the red stone of the quarry,", "Smoothed and formed it into Peace-Pipes,", "Broke the long reeds by the river,", "Decked them with their brightest feathers,", "And departed each one homeward,", "While the Master of Life, ascending,", "Through the opening of cloud-curtains,", "Through the doorways of the heaven,", "Vanished from before their faces,", "In the smoke that rolled around him,", "The Pukwana of the Peace-Pipe!" ], "linecount": "163" }, { "title": "The Poet's Calendar", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "January", "", "Janus am I; oldest of potentates;", "Forward I look, and backward, and below", "I count, as god of avenues and gates,", "The years that through my portals come and go.", "I block the roads, and drift the fields with snow;", "I chase the wild-fowl from the frozen fen;", "My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow,", "My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men.", "", "February", "", "I am lustration, and the sea is mine!", "I wash the sands and headlands with my tide;", "My brow is crowned with branches of the pine;", "Before my chariot-wheels the fishes glide.", "By me all things unclean are purified,", "By me the souls of men washed white again;", "E'en the unlovely tombs of those who died", "Without a dirge, I cleanse from every stain.", "", "March", "", "I Martius am! Once first, and now the third!", "To lead the Year was my appointed place;", "A mortal dispossessed me by a word,", "And set there Janus with the double face.", "Hence I make war on all the human race;", "I shake the cities with my hurricanes;", "I flood the rivers and their banks efface,", "And drown the farms and hamlets with my rains.", "", "April", "", "I open wide the portals of the Spring", "To welcome the procession of the flowers,", "With their gay banners, and the birds that sing", "Their song of songs from their aerial towers.", "I soften with my sunshine and my showers", "The heart of earth; with thoughts of love I glide", "Into the hearts of men; and with the Hours", "Upon the Bull with wreathed horns I ride.", "", "May", "", "Hark! The sea-faring wild-fowl loud proclaim", "My coming, and the swarming of the bees.", "These are my heralds, and behold! my name", "Is written in blossoms on the hawthorn-trees.", "I tell the mariner when to sail the seas;", "I waft o'er all the land from far away", "The breath and bloom of the Hesperides,", "My birthplace. I am Maia. I am May.", "", "June", "", "Mine is the Month of Roses; yes, and mine", "The Month of Marriages! All pleasant sights", "And scents, the fragrance of the blossoming vine,", "The foliage of the valleys and the heights.", "Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights;", "The mower's scythe makes music to my ear;", "I am the mother of all dear delights;", "I am the fairest daughter of the year.", "", "July", "", "My emblem is the Lion, and I breathe", "The breath of Libyan deserts o'er the land;", "My sickle as a sabre I unsheathe,", "And bent before me the pale harvests stand.", "The lakes and rivers shrink at my command,", "And there is thirst and fever in the air;", "The sky is changed to brass, the earth to sand;", "I am the Emperor whose name I bear.", "", "August", "", "The Emperor Octavian, called the August,", "I being his favorite, bestowed his name", "Upon me, and I hold it still in trust,", "In memory of him and of his fame.", "I am the Virgin, and my vestal flame", "Burns less intensely than the Lion's rage;", "Sheaves are my only garlands, and I claim", "The golden Harvests as my heritage.", "", "September", "", "I bear the Scales, where hang in equipoise", "The night and day; and whenunto my lips", "I put my trumpet, with its stress and noise", "Fly the white clouds like tattered sails of ships;", "The tree-tops lash the air with sounding whips;", "Southward the clamorous sea-fowl wing their flight;", "The hedges are all red with haws and hips,", "The Hunter's Moon reigns empress of the night.", "", "October", "", "My ornaments are fruits; my garments leaves,", "Woven like cloth of gold, and crimson dyed;", "I do no boast the harvesting of sheaves,", "O'er orchards and o'er vineyards I preside.", "Though on the frigid Scorpion I ride,", "The dreamy air is full, and overflows", "With tender memories of the summer-tide,", "And mingled voices of the doves and crows.", "", "November", "", "The Centaur, Sagittarius, am I,", "Born of Ixion's and the cloud's embrace;", "With sounding hoofs across the earth I fly,", "A steed Thessalian with a human face.", "Sharp winds the arrows are with which I chase", "The leaves, half dead already with affright;", "I shroud myself in gloom; and to the race", "Of mortals bring nor comfort nor delight.", "", "December", "", "Riding upon the Goat, with snow-white hair,", "I come, the last of all. This crown of mine", "Is of the holly; in my hand I bear", "The thyrsus, tipped with fragrant cones of pine.", "I celebrate the birth of the Divine,", "And the return of the Saturnian reign;--", "My songs are carols sung at every shrine,", "Proclaiming \"Peace on earth, good will to men.\"" ], "linecount": "108" }, { "title": "The Landlord's Tale; Paul Revere's Ride", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Listen my children and you shall hear", "Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,", "On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;", "Hardly a man is now alive", "Who remembers that famous day and year.", "", "He said to his friend, \"If the British march", "By land or sea from the town to-night,", "Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch", "Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--", "One if by land, and two if by sea;", "And I on the opposite shore will be,", "Ready to ride and spread the alarm", "Through every Middlesex village and farm,", "For the country folk to be up and to arm.\"", "", "Then he said \"Good-night!\" and with muffled oar", "Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,", "Just as the moon rose over the bay,", "Where swinging wide at her moorings lay", "The Somerset, British man-of-war;", "A phantom ship, with each mast and spar", "Across the moon like a prison bar,", "And a huge black hulk, that was magnified", "By its own reflection in the tide.", "", "Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street", "Wanders and watches, with eager ears,", "Till in the silence around him he hears", "The muster of men at the barrack door,", "The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,", "And the measured tread of the grenadiers,", "Marching down to their boats on the shore.", "", "Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,", "By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,", "To the belfry chamber overhead,", "And startled the pigeons from their perch", "On the sombre rafters, that round him made", "Masses and moving shapes of shade,--", "By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,", "To the highest window in the wall,", "Where he paused to listen and look down", "A moment on the roofs of the town", "And the moonlight flowing over all.", "", "Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,", "In their night encampment on the hill,", "Wrapped in silence so deep and still", "That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,", "The watchful night-wind, as it went", "Creeping along from tent to tent,", "And seeming to whisper, \"All is well!\"", "A moment only he feels the spell", "Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread", "Of the lonely belfry and the dead;", "For suddenly all his thoughts are bent", "On a shadowy something far away,", "Where the river widens to meet the bay,--", "A line of black that bends and floats", "On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.", "", "Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,", "Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride", "On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.", "Now he patted his horse's side,", "Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,", "Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,", "And turned and tightened his saddle girth;", "But mostly he watched with eager search", "The belfry tower of the Old North Church,", "As it rose above the graves on the hill,", "Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.", "And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height", "A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!", "He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,", "But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight", "A second lamp in the belfry burns.", "", "A hurry of hoofs in a village street,", "A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,", "And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark", "Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;", "That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,", "The fate of a nation was riding that night;", "And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,", "Kindled the land into flame with its heat.", "He has left the village and mounted the steep,", "And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,", "Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;", "And under the alders that skirt its edge,", "Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,", "Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.", "", "It was twelve by the village clock", "When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.", "He heard the crowing of the cock,", "And the barking of the farmer's dog,", "And felt the damp of the river fog,", "That rises after the sun goes down.", "", "It was one by the village clock,", "When he galloped into Lexington.", "He saw the gilded weathercock", "Swim in the moonlight as he passed,", "And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,", "Gaze at him with a spectral glare,", "As if they already stood aghast", "At the bloody work they would look upon.", "", "It was two by the village clock,", "When he came to the bridge in Concord town.", "He heard the bleating of the flock,", "And the twitter of birds among the trees,", "And felt the breath of the morning breeze", "Blowing over the meadow brown.", "And one was safe and asleep in his bed", "Who at the bridge would be first to fall,", "Who that day would be lying dead,", "Pierced by a British musket ball.", "", "You know the rest. In the books you have read", "How the British Regulars fired and fled,---", "How the farmers gave them ball for ball,", "From behind each fence and farmyard wall,", "Chasing the redcoats down the lane,", "Then crossing the fields to emerge again", "Under the trees at the turn of the road,", "And only pausing to fire and load.", "", "So through the night rode Paul Revere;", "And so through the night went his cry of alarm", "To every Middlesex village and farm,---", "A cry of defiance, and not of fear,", "A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,", "And a word that shall echo for evermore!", "For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,", "Through all our history, to the last,", "In the hour of darkness and peril and need,", "The people will waken and listen to hear", "The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,", "And the midnight message of Paul Revere." ], "linecount": "130" }, { "title": "Daylight and Moonlight", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "In broad daylight, and at noon,", "Yesterday I saw the moon", "Sailing high, but faint and white,", "As a schoolboy's paper kite.", "", "In broad daylight, yesterday,", "I read a poet's mystic lay;", "And it seemed to me at most", "As a phantom, or a ghost.", "", "But at length the feverish day", "Like a passion died away,", "And the night, serene and still,", "Fell on village, vale, and hill.", "", "Then the moon, in all her pride,", "Like a spirit glorified,", "Filled and overflowed the night", "With revelations of her light.", "", "And the Poet's song again", "Passed like music through my brain;", "Night interpreted to me", "All its grace and mystery." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Autumn Within", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "It is autumn; not without", "But within me is the cold.", "Youth and spring are all about;", "It is I that have grown old.", "", "Birds are darting through the air,", "Singing, building without rest;", "Life is stirring everywhere,", "Save within my lonely breast.", "", "There is silence: the dead leaves", "Fall and rustle and are still;", "Beats no flail upon the sheaves,", "Comes no murmur from the mill." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,", "Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,", "Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,", "Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.", "Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean", "Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.", "", "This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it", "Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman", "Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers,--", "Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,", "Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?", "Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!", "Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October", "Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean", "Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pre.", "", "Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,", "Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion,", "List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest;", "List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.", "", "", "", "PART THE FIRST", "", "I", "", "In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas,", "Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pre", "Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward,", "Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without number.", "Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor incessant,", "Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood-gates", "Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows.", "West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfields", "Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and away to the northward", "Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains", "Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic", "Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station descended", "There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian village.", "Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and of hemlock,", "Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign of the Henries.", "Thatched were the roofs, with dormer-windows; and gables projecting", "Over the basement below protected and shaded the doorway.", "There in the tranquil evenings of summer, when brightly the sunset", "Lighted the village street and gilded the vanes on the chimneys,", "Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles", "Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spinning the golden", "Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttles within doors", "Mingled their sound with the whir of the wheels and the songs of the maidens,", "Solemnly down the street came the parish priest, and the children", "Paused in their play to kiss the hand he extended to bless them.", "Reverend walked he among them; and up rose matrons and maidens,", "Hailing his slow approach with words of affectionate welcome.", "Then came the laborers home from the field, and serenely the sun sank", "Down to his rest, and twilight prevailed. Anon from the belfry", "Softly the Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the village", "Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense ascending,", "Rose from a hundred hearths, the homes of peace and contentment.", "Thus dwelt together in love these simple Acadian farmers,--", "Dwelt in the love of God and of man. Alike were they free from", "Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of republics.", "Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows;", "But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts of their owners;", "There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abundance.", "", "Somewhat apart from the village, and nearer the Basin of Minas,", "Benedict Bellefontaine, the wealthiest farmer of Grand-Pre,", "Dwelt on his goodly acres: and with him, directing his household,", "Gentle Evangeline lived, his child, and the pride of the village.", "Stalworth and stately in form was the man of seventy winters;", "Hearty and hale was he, an oak that is covered with snow-flakes;", "White as the snow were his locks, and his cheeks as brown as the oak-leaves.", "Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen summers.", "Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the thorn by the wayside,", "Black, yet how softly they gleamed beneath the brown shade of her tresses!", "Sweet was her breath as the breath of kine that feed in the meadows.", "When in the harvest heat she bore to the reapers at noontide", "Flagons of home-brewed ale, ah! fair in sooth was the maiden,", "Fairer was she when, on Sunday morn, while the bell from its turret", "Sprinkled with holy sounds the air, as the priest with his hyssop", "Sprinkles the congregation, and scatters blessings upon them,", "Down the long street she passed, with her chaplet of beads and her missal,", "Wearing her Norman cap and her kirtle of blue, and the ear-rings,", "Brought in the olden time from France, and since, as an heirloom,", "Handed down from mother to child, through long generations.", "But a celestial brightness--a more ethereal beauty--", "Shone on her face and encircled her form, when, after confession,", "Homeward serenely she walked with God's benediction upon her.", "When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.", "", "Firmly builded with rafters of oak, the house of the farmer", "Stood on the side of a hill commanding the sea; and a shady", "Sycamore grew by the door, with a woodbine wreathing around it.", "Rudely carved was the porch, with seats beneath; and a footpath", "Led through an orchard wide, and disappeared in the meadow.", "Under the sycamore-tree were hives overhung by a penthouse,", "Such as the traveller sees in regions remote by the roadside,", "Built o'er a box for the poor, or the blessed image of Mary.", "Farther down, on the slope of the hill, was the well with its moss-grown", "Bucket, fastened with iron, and near it a trough for the horses.", "Shielding the house from storms, on the north, were the barns and the farm-yard,", "There stood the broad-wheeled wains and the antique ploughs and the harrows;", "There were the folds for the sheep; and there, in his feathered seraglio,", "Strutted the lordly turkey, and crowed the cock, with the selfsame", "Voice that in ages of old had startled the penitent Peter.", "Bursting with hay were the barns, themselves a village. In each one", "Far o'er the gable projected a roof of thatch; and a staircase,", "Under the sheltering eaves, led up to the odorous corn-loft.", "There too the dove-cot stood, with its meek and innocent inmates", "Murmuring ever of love; while above in the variant breezes", "Numberless noisy weathercocks rattled and sang of mutation.", "", "Thus, at peace with God and the world, the farmer of Grand-Pre", "Lived on his sunny farm, and Evangeline governed his household.", "Many a youth, as he knelt in the church and opened his missal,", "Fixed his eyes upon her as the saint of his deepest devotion;", "Happy was he who might touch her hand or the hem of her garment!", "Many a suitor came to her door, by the darkness befriended,", "And, as he knocked and waited to hear the sound of her footsteps,", "Knew not which beat the louder, his heart or the knocker of iron;", "Or at the joyous feast of the Patron Saint of the village,", "Bolder grew, and pressed her hand in the dance as he whispered", "Hurried words of love, that seemed a part of the music.", "But, among all who came, young Gabriel only was welcome;", "Gabriel Lajeunesse, the son of Basil the blacksmith,", "Who was a mighty man in the village, and honored of all men;", "For, since the birth of time, throughout all ages and nations,", "Has the craft of the smith been held in repute by the people.", "Basil was Benedict's friend. Their children from earliest childhood", "Grew up together as brother and sister; and Father Felician,", "Priest and pedagogue both in the village, had taught them their letters", "Out of the selfsame book, with the hymns of the church and the plain-song.", "But when the hymn was sung, and the daily lesson completed,", "Swiftly they hurried away to the forge of Basil the blacksmith.", "There at the door they stood, with wondering eyes to behold him", "Take in his leathern lap the hoof of the horse as a plaything,", "Nailing the shoe in its place; while near him the tire of the cart-wheel", "Lay like a fiery snake, coiled round in a circle of cinders.", "Oft on autumnal eves, when without in the gathering darkness", "Bursting with light seemed the smithy, through every cranny and crevice,", "Warm by the forge within they watched the laboring bellows,", "And as its panting ceased, and the sparks expired in the ashes,", "Merrily laughed, and said they were nuns going into the chapel.", "Oft on sledges in winter, as swift as the swoop of the eagle,", "Down the hillside hounding, they glided away o'er the meadow.", "Oft in the barns they climbed to the populous nests on the rafters,", "Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone, which the swallow", "Brings from the shore of the sea to restore the sight of its fledglings;", "Lucky was he who found that stone in the nest of the swallow!", "Thus passed a few swift years, and they no longer were children.", "He was a valiant youth, and his face, like the face of the morning,", "Gladdened the earth with its light, and ripened thought into action.", "She was a woman now, with the heart and hopes of a woman.", "\"Sunshine of Saint Eulalie\" was she called; for that was the sunshine", "Which, as the farmers believed, would load their orchards with apples", "She, too, would bring to her husband's house delight and abundance,", "Filling it full of love and the ruddy faces of children.", "", "", "", "II", "", "Now had the season returned, when the nights grow colder and longer,", "And the retreating sun the sign of the Scorpion enters.", "Birds of passage sailed through the leaden air, from the ice-bound,", "Desolate northern bays to the shores of tropical islands,", "Harvests were gathered in; and wild with the winds of September", "Wrestled the trees of the forest, as Jacob of old with the angel.", "All the signs foretold a winter long and inclement.", "Bees, with prophetic instinct of want, had hoarded their honey", "Till the hives overflowed; and the Indian bunters asserted", "Cold would the winter be, for thick was the fur of the foxes.", "Such was the advent of autumn. Then followed that beautiful season,", "Called by the pious Acadian peasants the Summer of All-Saints!", "Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape", "Lay as if new-created in all the freshness of childhood.", "Peace seemed to reign upon earth, and the restless heart of the ocean", "Was for a moment consoled. All sounds were in harmony blended.", "Voices of children at play, the crowing of cocks in the farm-yards,", "Whir of wings in the drowsy air, and the cooing of pigeons,", "All were subdued and low as the murmurs of love, and the great sun", "Looked with the eye of love through the golden vapors around him;", "While arrayed in its robes of russet and scarlet and yellow,", "Bright with the sheen of the dew, each glittering tree of the forest", "Flashed like the plane-tree the Persian adorned with mantles and jewels.", "", "Now recommenced the reign of rest and affection and stillness.", "Day with its burden and heat had departed, and twilight descending", "Brought back the evening star to the sky, and the herds to the homestead.", "Pawing the ground they came, and resting their necks on each other,", "And with their nostrils distended inhaling the freshness of evening.", "Foremost, bearing the bell, Evangeline's beautiful heifer,", "Proud of her snow-white hide, and the ribbon that waved from her collar,", "Quietly paced and slow, as if conscious of human affection.", "Then came the shepherd back with his bleating flocks from the seaside,", "Where was their favorite pasture. Behind them followed the watch-dog,", "Patient, full of importance, and grand in the pride of his instinct,", "Walking from side to side with a lordly air, and superbly", "Waving his bushy tail, and urging forward the stragglers;", "Regent of flocks was he when the shepherd slept; their protector,", "When from the forest at night, through the starry silence, the wolves howled.", "Late, with the rising moon, returned the wains from the marshes,", "Laden with briny hay, that filled the air with its odor.", "Cheerily neighed the steeds, with dew on their manes and their fetlocks,", "While aloft on their shoulders the wooden and ponderous saddles,", "Painted with brilliant dyes, and adorned with tassels of crimson,", "Nodded in bright array, like hollyhocks heavy with blossoms.", "Patiently stood the cows meanwhile, and yielded their udders", "Unto the milkmaid's hand; whilst loud and in regular cadence", "Into the sounding pails the foaming streamlets descended.", "Lowing of cattle and peals of laughter were heard in the farm-yard,", "Echoed back by the barns. Anon they sank into stillness;", "Heavily closed, with a jarring sound, the valves of the barn-doors,", "Rattled the wooden bars, and all for a season was silent.", "", "In-doors, warm by the wide-mouthed fireplace, idly the farmer", "Sat in his elbow-chair, and watched how the flames and the smoke-wreaths", "Struggled together like foes in a burning city. Behind him,", "Nodding and mocking along the wall, with gestures fantastic,", "Darted his own huge shadow, and vanished away into darkness.", "Faces, clumsily carved in oak, on the back of his arm-chair", "Laughed in the flickering light, and the pewter plates on the dresser", "Caught and reflected the flame, as shields of armies the sunshine.", "Fragments of song the old man sang, and carols of Christmas,", "Such as at home, in the olden time, his fathers before him", "Sang in their Norman orchards and bright Burgundian vineyards.", "Close at her father's side was the gentle Evangeline seated,", "Spinning flax for the loom, that stood in the corner behind her.", "Silent awhile were its treadles, at rest was its diligent shuttle,", "While the monotonous drone of the wheel, like the drone of a bagpipe,", "Followed the old man's songs and united the fragments together.", "As in a church, when the chant of the choir at intervals ceases,", "Footfalls are heard in the aisles, or words of the priest at the altar,", "So, in each pause of the song, with measured motion the clock clicked.", "", "Thus as they sat, there were footsteps heard, and, suddenly lifted,", "Sounded the wooden latch, and the door swung back on its hinges.", "Benedict knew by the hob-nailed shoes it was Basil the blacksmith,", "And by her beating heart Evangeline knew who was with him.", "\"Welcome!\" the farmer exclaimed, as their footsteps paused of the threshold.", "\"Welcome, Basil, my friend! Come, take thy place on the settle", "Close by the chimney-side, which is always empty without thee;", "Take from the shelf overhead thy pipe and the box of tobacco;", "Never so much thyself art thou as when through the curling", "Smoke of the pipe or the forge thy friendly and jovial face gleams", "Round and red as the harvest moon through the mist of the marshes.\"", "Then, with a smile of content, thus answered Basil the blacksmith,", "Taking with easy air the accustomed seat by the fireside:--", "\"Benedict Bellefontaine, thou hast ever thy jest and thy ballad!", "Ever in cheerfullest mood art thou, when others are filled with", "Gloomy forebodings of ill, and see only ruin before them.", "Happy art thou, as if every day thou hadst picked up a horseshoe.\"", "Pausing a moment, to take the pipe that Evangeline brought him,", "And with a coal from the embers had lighted, he slowly continued:--", "\"Four days now are passed since the English ships at their anchors", "Ride in the Gaspereau's mouth, with their cannon pointed against us.", "What their design may be is unknown; but all are commanded", "On the morrow to meet in the church, where his Majesty's mandate", "Will be proclaimed as law in the land. Alas! in the mean time", "Many surmises of evil alarm the hearts of the people.\"", "Then made answer the farmer:--\"Perhaps some friendlier purpose", "Brings these ships to our shores. Perhaps the harvests in England", "By untimely rains or untimelier heat have been blighted,", "And from our bursting barns they would feed their cattle and children.\"", "\"Not so thinketh the folk in the village,\" said, warmly, the blacksmith,", "Shaking his head, as in doubt; then, heaving a sigh, he continued:--", "\"Louisburg is not forgotten, nor Beau Sejour, nor Port Royal.", "Many already have fled to the forest, and lurk on its outskirts,", "Waiting with anxious hearts the dubious fate of to-morrow.", "Arms have been taken from us, and warlike weapons of all kinds;", "Nothing is left but the blacksmith's sledge and the scythe of the mower.\"", "Then with a pleasant smile made answer the jovial farmer:--", "\"Safer are we unarmed, in the midst of our flocks and our cornfields,", "Safer within these peaceful dikes, besieged by the ocean,", "Than our fathers in forts, besieged by the enemy's cannon.", "Fear no evil, my friend, and to-night may no shadow of sorrow", "Fall on this house and hearth; for this is the night of the contract.", "Built are the house and the barn. The merry lads of the village", "Strongly have built them and well; and, breaking the glebe round about them,", "Filled the barn with hay, and the house with food for a twelvemonth.", "Rene Leblanc will be here anon, with his papers and inkhorn.", "Shall we not then be glad, and rejoice in the joy of our children?\"", "As apart by the window she stood, with her hand in her lover's,", "Blushing Evangeline heard the words that her father had spoken,", "And, as they died on his lips, the worthy notary entered.", "", "", "", "III", "", "Bent like a laboring oar, that toils in the surf of the ocean,", "Bent, but not broken, by age was the form of the notary public;", "Shocks of yellow hair, like the silken floss of the maize, hung", "Over his shoulders; his forehead was high; and glasses with horn bows", "Sat astride on his nose, with a look of wisdom supernal.", "Father of twenty children was he, and more than a hundred", "Children's children rode on his knee, and heard his great watch tick.", "Four long years in the times of the war had he languished a captive,", "Suffering much in an old French fort as the friend of the English.", "Now, though warier grown, without all guile or suspicion,", "Ripe in wisdom was he, but patient, and simple, and childlike.", "He was beloved by all, and most of all by the children;", "For he told them tales of the Loup-garou in the forest,", "And of the goblin that came in the night to water the horses,", "And of the white Letiche, the ghost of a child who unchristened", "Died, and was doomed to haunt unseen the chambers of children;", "And how on Christmas eve the oxen talked in the stable,", "And how the fever was cured by a spider shut up in a nutshell,", "And of the marvellous powers of four-leaved clover and horseshoes,", "With whatsoever else was writ in the lore of the village.", "Then up rose from his seat by the fireside Basil the blacksmith,", "Knocked from his pipe the ashes, and slowly extending his right hand,", "\"Father Leblanc,\" he exclaimed, \"thou hast heard the talk in the village,", "And, perchance, canst tell us some news of these ships and their errand.\"", "Then with modest demeanor made answer the notary public,--", "\"Gossip enough have I heard, in sooth, yet am never the wiser;", "And what their errand may be I know not better than others.", "Yet am I not of those who imagine some evil intention", "Brings them here, for we are at peace; and why then molest us?\"", "\"God's name!\" shouted the hasty and somewhat irascible blacksmith;", "\"Must we in all things look for the how, and the why, and the wherefore?", "Daily injustice is done, and might is the right of the strongest!\"", "But, without heeding his warmth, continued the notary public,--", "\"Man is unjust, but God is just; and finally justice", "Triumphs; and well I remember a story, that often consoled me,", "When as a captive I lay in the old French fort at Port Royal.\"", "This was the old man's favorite tale, and he loved to repeat it", "When his neighbors complained that any injustice was done them.", "\"Once in an ancient city, whose name I no longer remember,", "Raised aloft on a column, a brazen statue of Justice", "Stood in the public square, upholding the scales in its left hand,", "And in its right a sword, as an emblem that justice presided", "Over the laws of the land, and the hearts and homes of the people.", "Even the birds had built their nests in the scales of the balance,", "Having no fear of the sword that flashed in the sunshine above them.", "But in the course of time the laws of the land were corrupted;", "Might took the place of right, and the weak were oppressed, and the mighty", "Ruled with an iron rod. Then it chanced in a nobleman's palace", "That a necklace of pearls was lost, and erelong a suspicion", "Fell on an orphan girl who lived as maid in the household.", "She, after form of trial condemned to die on the scaffold,", "Patiently met her doom at the foot of the statue of Justice.", "As to her Father in heaven her innocent spirit ascended,", "Lo! o'er the city a tempest rose; and the bolts of the thunder", "Smote the statue of bronze, and hurled in wrath from its left hand", "Down on the pavement below the clattering scales of the balance,", "And in the hollow thereof was found the nest of a magpie,", "Into whose clay-built walls the necklace of pearls was inwoven.\"", "Silenced, but not convinced, when the story was ended, the blacksmith", "Stood like a man who fain would speak, but findeth no language;", "All his thoughts were congealed into lines on his face, as the vapors", "Freeze in fantastic shapes on the window-panes in the winter.", "", "Then Evangeline lighted the brazen lamp on the table,", "Filled, till it overflowed, the pewter tankard with home-brewed", "Nut-brown ale, that was famed for its strength in the village of Grand-Pre;", "While from his pocket the notary drew his papers and inkhorn,", "Wrote with a steady hand the date and the age of the parties,", "Naming the dower of the bride in flocks of sheep and in cattle.", "Orderly all things proceeded, and duly and well were completed,", "And the great seal of the law was set like a sun on the margin.", "Then from his leathern pouch the farmer threw on the table", "Three times the old man's fee in solid pieces of silver;", "And the notary rising, and blessing the bride and the bridegroom,", "Lifted aloft the tankard of ale and drank to their welfare.", "Wiping the foam from his lip, he solemnly bowed and departed,", "While in silence the others sat and mused by the fireside,", "Till Evangeline brought the draught-board out of its corner.", "Soon was the game begun. In friendly contention the old men", "Laughed at each lucky hit, or unsuccessful manoeuver,", "Laughed when a man was crowned, or a breach was made in the king-row", "Meanwhile apart, in the twilight gloom of a window's embrasure,", "Sat the lovers, and whispered together, beholding the moon rise", "Over the pallid sea and the silvery mist of the meadows.", "Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,", "Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.", "", "Thus was the evening passed. Anon the bell from the belfry", "Rang out the hour of nine, the village curfew, and straightway", "Rose the guests and departed; and silence reigned in the household.", "Many a farewell word and sweet good-night on the door-step", "Lingered long in Evangeline's heart, and filled it with gladness.", "Carefully then were covered the embers that glowed on the hearth-stone,", "And on the oaken stairs resounded the tread of the farmer.", "Soon with a soundless step the foot of Evangeline followed.", "Up the staircase moved a luminous space in the darkness,", "Lighted less by the lamp than the shining face of the maiden.", "Silent she passed the hall, and entered the door of her chamber.", "Simple that chamber was, with its curtains of white, and its clothes-press", "Ample and high, on whose spacious shelves were carefully folded", "Linen and woollen stuffs, by the hand of Evangeline woven.", "This was the precious dower she would bring to her husband in marriage,", "Better than flocks and herds, being proofs of her skill as a housewife.", "Soon she extinguished her lamp, for the mellow and radiant moonlight", "Streamed through the windows, and lighted the room, till the heart of the maiden", "Swelled and obeyed its power, like the tremulous tides of the ocean.", "Ah! she was fair, exceeding fair to behold, as she stood with", "Naked snow-white feet on the gleaming floor of her chamber!", "Little she dreamed that below, among the trees of the orchard,", "Waited her lover and watched for the gleam of her lamp and her shadow.", "Yet were her thoughts of him, and at times a feeling of sadness", "Passed o'er her soul, as the sailing shade of clouds in the moonlight", "Flitted across the floor and darkened the room for a moment.", "And, as she gazed from the window, she saw serenely the moon pass", "Forth from the folds of a cloud, and one star follow her footsteps,", "As out of Abraham's tent young Ishmael wandered with Hagar!", "", "", "IV", "", "Pleasantly rose next morn the sun on the village of Grand-Pre.", "Pleasantly gleamed in the soft, sweet air the Basin of Minas,", "Where the ships, with their wavering shadows, were riding at anchor.", "Life had long been astir in the village, and clamorous labor", "Knocked with its hundred hands at the golden gates of the morning.", "Now from the country around, from the farms and neighboring hamlets,", "Came in their holiday dresses the blithe Acadian peasants.", "Many a glad good-morrow and jocund laugh from the young folk", "Made the bright air brighter, as up from the numerous meadows,", "Where no path could be seen but the track of wheels in the greensward,", "Group after group appeared, and joined, or passed on the highway.", "Long ere noon, in the village all sounds of labor were silenced.", "Thronged were the streets with people; and noisy groups at the house-doors", "Sat in the cheerful sun, and rejoiced and gossiped together.", "Every house was an inn, where all were welcomed and feasted;", "For with this simple people, who lived like brothers together,", "All things were held in common, and what one had was another's.", "Yet under Benedict's roof hospitality seemed more abundant:", "For Evangeline stood among the guests of her father;", "Bright was her face with smiles, and words of welcome and gladness", "Fell from her beautiful lips, and blessed the cup as she gave it.", "", "Under the open sky, in the odorous air of the orchard,", "Stript of its golden fruit, was spread the feast of betrothal.", "There in the shade of the porch were the priest and the notary seated;", "There good Benedict sat, and sturdy Basil the blacksmith.", "Not far withdrawn from these, by the cider-press and the beehives,", "Michael the fiddler was placed, with the gayest of hearts and of waistcoats.", "Shadow and light from the leaves alternately played on his snow-white", "Hair, as it waved in the wind; and the jolly face of the fiddler", "Glowed like a living coal when the ashes are blown from the embers.", "Gayly the old man sang to the vibrant sound of his fiddle,", "Tous les Bourgeois de Chartres, and Le Carillon de Dunkerque,", "And anon with his wooden shoes beat time to the music.", "Merrily, merrily whirled the wheels of the dizzying dances", "Under the orchard-trees and down the path to the meadows;", "Old folk and young together, and children mingled among them.", "Fairest of all the maids was Evangeline, Benedict's daughter!", "Noblest of all the youths was Gabriel, son of the blacksmith!", "", "So passed the morning away. And lo! with a summons sonorous", "Sounded the bell from its tower, and over the meadows a drum beat.", "Thronged erelong was the church with men. Without, in the churchyard,", "Waited the women. They stood by the graves, and hung on the headstones", "Garlands of autumn-leaves and evergreens fresh from the forest.", "Then came the guard from the ships, and marching proudly among them", "Entered the sacred portal. With loud and dissonant clangor", "Echoed the sound of their brazen drums from ceiling and casement,--", "Echoed a moment only, and slowly the ponderous portal", "Closed, and in silence the crowd awaited the will of the soldiers.", "Then uprose their commander, and spoke from the steps of the altar,", "Holding aloft in his hands, with its seals, the royal commission.", "\"You are convened this day,\" he said, \"by his Majesty's orders.", "Clement and kind has he been; but how you have answered his kindness,", "Let your own hearts reply! To my natural make and my temper", "Painful the task is I do, which to you I know must be grievous.", "Yet must I bow and obey, and deliver the will of our monarch;", "Namely, that all your lands, and dwellings, and cattle of all kinds", "Forfeited be to the crown; and that you yourselves from this province", "Be transported to other lands. God grant you may dwell there", "Ever as faithful subjects, a happy and peaceable people!", "Prisoners now I declare you; for such is his Majesty's pleasure!\"", "As, when the air is serene in the sultry solstice of summer,", "Suddenly gathers a storm, and the deadly sling of the hailstones", "Beats down the farmer's corn in the field and shatters his windows,", "Hiding the sun, and strewing the ground with thatch from the house-roofs,", "Bellowing fly the herds, and seek to break their enclosures;", "So on the hearts of the people descended the words of the speaker.", "Silent a moment they stood in speechless wonder, and then rose", "Louder and ever louder a wail of sorrow and anger,", "And, by one impulse moved, they madly rushed to the door-way.", "Vain was the hope of escape; and cries and fierce imprecations", "Rang through the house of prayer; and high o'er the heads of the others", "Rose, with his arms uplifted, the figure of Basil the blacksmith,", "As, on a stormy sea, a spar is tossed by the billows.", "Flushed was his face and distorted with passion; and wildly he shouted,--", "\"Down with the tyrants of England! we never have sworn them allegiance!", "Death to these foreign soldiers, who seize on our homes and our harvests!\"", "More he fain would have said, but the merciless hand of a soldier", "Smote him upon the mouth, and dragged him down to the pavement.", "", "In the midst of the strife and tumult of angry contention,", "Lo! the door of the chancel opened, and Father Felician", "Entered, with serious mien, and ascended the steps of the altar.", "Raising his reverend hand, with a gesture he awed into silence", "All that clamorous throng; and thus he spake to his people;", "Deep were his tones and solemn; in accents measured and mournful", "Spake he, as, after the tocsin's alarum, distinctly the clock strikes.", "\"What is this that ye do, my children? what madness has seized you?", "Forty years of my life have I labored among you, and taught you,", "Not in word alone, but in deed, to love one another!", "Is this the fruit of my toils, of my vigils and prayers and privations?", "Have you so soon forgotten all lessons of love and forgiveness?", "This is the house of the Prince of Peace, and would you profane", "it", "Thus with violent deeds and hearts overflowing with hatred?", "Lo! where the crucified Christ from his cross is gazing upon you!", "See! in those sorrowful eyes what meekness and holy compassion!", "Hark! how those lips still repeat the prayer, 'O Father, forgive them!'", "Let us repeat that prayer in the hour when the wicked assail us,", "Let us repeat it now, and say, 'O Father, forgive them!'\"", "Few were his words of rebuke, but deep in the hearts of his people", "Sank they, and sobs of contrition succeeded the passionate outbreak,", "While they repeated his prayer, and said, \"O Father, forgive them!\"", "", "Then came the evening service. The tapers gleamed from the altar.", "Fervent and deep was the voice of the priest and the people responded,", "Not with their lips alone, but their hearts; and the Ave Maria", "Sang they, and fell on their knees, and their souls, with devotion translated,", "Rose on the ardor of prayer, like Elijah ascending to heaven.", "", "Meanwhile had spread in the village the tidings of ill, and on all sides", "Wandered, wailing, from house to house the women and children.", "Long at her father's door Evangeline stood, with her right hand", "Shielding her eyes from the level rays of the sun, that, descending,", "Lighted the village street with mysterious splendor, and roofed each", "Peasant's cottage with golden thatch, and emblazoned its windows.", "Long within had been spread the snow-white cloth on the table;", "There stood the wheaten loaf, and the honey fragrant with wild-flowers;", "There stood the tankard of ale, and the cheese fresh brought from the dairy;", "And, at the head of the board, the great arm-chair of the farmer.", "Thus did Evangeline wait at her father's door, as the sunset", "Threw the long shadows of trees o'er the broad ambrosial meadows.", "Ah! on her spirit within a deeper shadow had fallen,", "And from the fields of her soul a fragrance celestial ascended,--", "Charity, meekness, love, and hope, and forgiveness, and patience!", "Then, all-forgetful of self, she wandered into the village,", "Cheering with looks and words the mournful hearts of the women,", "As o'er the darkening fields with lingering steps they departed,", "Urged by their household cares, and the weary feet of their children.", "Down sank the great red sun, and in golden, glimmering vapors", "Veiled the light of his face, like the Prophet descending from Sinai.", "Sweetly over the village the bell of the Angelus sounded.", "", "Meanwhile, amid the gloom, by the church Evangeline lingered.", "All was silent within; and in vain at the door and the windows", "Stood she, and listened and looked, till, overcome by emotion,", "\"Gabriel!\" cried she aloud with tremulous voice; but no answer", "Came from the graves of the dead, nor the gloomier grave of the living.", "Slowly at length she returned to the tenantless house of her father.", "Smouldered the fire on the hearth, on the board was the supper untasted,", "Empty and drear was each room, and haunted with phantoms of terror.", "Sadly echoed her step on the stair and the floor of her chamber.", "In the dead of the night she heard the disconsolate rain fall", "Loud on the withered leaves of the sycamore-tree by the window.", "Keenly the lightning flashed; and the voice of the echoing thunder", "Told her that God was in heaven, and governed the world he created!", "Then she remembered the tale she had heard of the justice of Heaven;", "Soothed was her troubled soul, and she peacefully slumbered till", "morning.", "", "", "V", "", "Four times the sun had risen and set; and now on the fifth day", "Cheerily called the cock to the sleeping maids of the farm-house.", "Soon o'er the yellow fields, in silent and mournful procession,", "Came from the neighboring hamlets and farms the Acadian women,", "Driving in ponderous wains their household goods to the sea-shore,", "Pausing and looking back to gaze once more on their dwellings,", "Ere they were shut from sight by the winding road and the woodland.", "Close at their sides their children ran, and urged on the oxen,", "While in their little hands they clasped some fragments of playthings.", "", "Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth they hurried; and there on the sea-beach", "Piled in confusion lay the household goods of the peasants.", "All day long between the shore and the ships did the boats ply;", "All day long the wains came laboring down from the village.", "Late in the afternoon, when the sun was near to his setting,", "Echoed far o'er the fields came the roll of drums from the churchyard.", "Thither the women and children thronged. On a sudden the church-doors", "Opened, and forth came the guard, and marching in gloomy procession", "Followed the long-imprisoned, but patient, Acadian farmers.", "Even as pilgrims, who journey afar from their homes and their country,", "Sing as they go, and in singing forget they are weary and wayworn,", "So with songs on their lips the Acadian peasants descended", "Down from the church to the shore, amid their wives and their daughters.", "Foremost the young men came; and, raising together their voices,", "Sang with tremulous lips a chant of the Catholic Missions:--", "\"Sacred heart of the Saviour! O inexhaustible fountain!", "Fill our hearts this day with strength and submission and patience!\"", "Then the old men, as they marched, and the women that stood by the wayside", "Joined in the sacred psalm, and the birds in the sunshine above them", "Mingled their notes therewith, like voices of spirits departed.", "", "Half-way down to the shore Evangeline waited in silence,", "Not overcome with grief, but strong in the hour of affliction,--", "Calmly and sadly she waited, until the procession approached her,", "And she beheld the face of Gabriel pale with emotion.", "Team then filled her eyes, and, eagerly running to meet him,", "Clasped she his hands, and laid her head on his shoulder, and whispered,--", "\"Gabriel! be of good cheer! for if we love one another", "Nothing, in truth, can harm us, whatever mischances may happen!\"", "Smiling she spake these words; then suddenly paused, for her father", "Saw she slowly advancing. Alas! how changed was his aspect!", "Gone was the glow from his cheek, and the fire from his eye, and his footstep", "Heavier seemed with the weight of the heavy heart in his bosom.", "But with a smile and a sigh, she clasped his neck and embraced him,", "Speaking words of endearment where words of comfort availed not.", "Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth moved on that mournful procession.", "", "There disorder prevailed, and the tumult and stir of embarking.", "Busily plied the freighted boats; and in the confusion", "Wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers, too late, saw their children", "Left on the land, extending their arms, with wildest entreaties.", "So unto separate ships were Basil and Gabriel carried,", "While in despair on the shore Evangeline stood with her father.", "Half the task was not done when the sun went down, and the twilight", "Deepened and darkened around; and in haste the refluent ocean", "Fled away from the shore, and left the line of the sand-beach", "Covered with waifs of the tide, with kelp and the slippery sea-weed.", "Farther back in the midst of the household goods and the wagons,", "Like to a gypsy camp, or a leaguer after a battle,", "All escape cut off by the sea, and the sentinels near them,", "Lay encamped for the night the houseless Acadian farmers.", "Back to its nethermost caves retreated the bellowing ocean,", "Dragging adown the beach the rattling pebbles, and leaving", "Inland and far up the shore the stranded boats of the sailors.", "Then, as the night descended, the herds returned from their pastures;", "Sweet was the moist still air with the odor of milk from their udders;", "Lowing they waited, and long, at the well-known bars of the farm-yard,--", "Waited and looked in vain for the voice and the hand of the milkmaid.", "Silence reigned in the streets; from the church no Angelus sounded,", "Rose no smoke from the roofs, and gleamed no lights from the windows.", "", "But on the shores meanwhile the evening fires had been kindled,", "Built of the drift-wood thrown on the sands from wrecks in the tempest.", "Round them shapes of gloom and sorrowful faces were gathered,", "Voices of women were heard, and of men, and the crying of children.", "Onward from fire to fire, as from hearth to hearth in his parish,", "Wandered the faithful priest, consoling and blessing and cheering,", "Like unto shipwrecked Paul on Melita's desolate sea-shore.", "Thus he approached the place where Evangeline sat with her father,", "And in the flickering light beheld the face of the old man,", "Haggard and hollow and wan, and without either thought or emotion,", "E'en as the face of a clock from which the hands have been taken.", "Vainly Evangeline strove with words and caresses to cheer him,", "Vainly offered him food; yet he moved not, he looked not, he spake not", "But, with a vacant stare, ever gazed at the flickering fire-light.", "\"Benedicite!\" murmured the priest, in tones of compassion.", "More he fain would have said, but his heart was full, and his accents", "Faltered and paused on his lips, as the feet of a child on a threshold,", "Hushed by the scene he beholds, and the awful presence of sorrow.", "Silently, therefore, he laid his hand on the head of the maiden,", "Raising his tearful eyes to the silent stars that above them", "Moved on their way, unperturbed by the wrongs and sorrows of mortals.", "Then sat he down at her side, and they wept together in silence.", "", "Suddenly rose from the south a light, as in autumn the blood-red", "Moon climbs the crystal walls of heaven, and o'er the horizon", "Titan-like stretches its hundred hands upon mountain and meadow,", "Seizing the rocks and the rivers, and piling huge shadows together.", "Broader and ever broader it gleamed on the roofs of the village,", "Gleamed on the sky and the sea, and the ships that lay in the roadstead.", "Columns of shining smoke uprose, and flashes of flame were", "Thrust through their folds and withdrawn, like the quivering hands of a martyr.", "Then as the wind seized the gleeds and the burning thatch, and, uplifting,", "Whirled them aloft through the air, at once from a hundred house-tops", "Started the sheeted smoke with flashes of flame intermingled.", "", "These things beheld in dismay the crowd on the shore and on shipboard.", "Speechless at first they stood, then cried aloud in their anguish,", "\"We shall behold no more our homes in the village of Grand-Pre!\"", "Loud on a sudden the cocks began to crow in the farm-yards,", "Thinking the day had dawned; and anon the lowing of cattle", "Came on the evening breeze, by the barking of dogs interrupted.", "Then rose a sound of dread, such as startles the sleeping encampments", "Far in the western prairies or forests that skirt the Nebraska,", "When the wild horses affrighted sweep by with the speed of the whirlwind,", "Or the loud bellowing herds of buffaloes rush to the river.", "Such was the sound that arose on the night, as the herds and the horses", "Broke through their folds and fences, and madly rushed o'er the meadows.", "", "Overwhelmed with the sight, yet speechless, the priest and the maiden", "Gazed on the scene of terror that reddened and widened before them;", "And as they turned at length to speak to their silent companion,", "Lo! from his seat he had fallen, and stretched abroad on the sea-shore", "Motionless lay his form, from which the soul had departed.", "Slowly the priest uplifted the lifeless head, and the maiden", "Knelt at her father's side, and wailed aloud in her terror.", "Then in a swoon she sank, and lay with her head on his bosom.", "Through the long night she lay in deep, oblivious slumber;", "And when she woke from the trance, she beheld a multitude near her.", "Faces of friends she beheld, that were mournfully gazing upon her,", "Pallid, with tearful eyes, and looks of saddest compassion.", "Still the blaze of the burning village illumined the landscape,", "Reddened the sky overhead, and gleamed on the faces around her,", "And like the day of doom it seemed to her wavering senses.", "Then a familiar voice she heard, as it said to the people,--", "\"Let us bury him here by the sea. When a happier season", "Brings us again to our homes from the unknown land of our exile,", "Then shall his sacred dust be piously laid in the churchyard.\"", "Such were the words of the priest. And there in haste by the sea-side,", "Having the glare of the burning village for funeral torches,", "But without bell or book, they buried the farmer of Grand-Pre.", "And as the voice of the priest repeated the service of sorrow,", "Lo! with a mournful sound, like the voice of a vast congregation,", "Solemnly answered the sea, and mingled its roar with the dirges.", "'T was the returning tide, that afar from the waste of the ocean,", "With the first dawn of the day, came heaving and hurrying landward.", "Then recommenced once more the stir and noise of embarking;", "And with the ebb of the tide the ships sailed out of the harbor,", "Leaving behind them the dead on the shore, and the village in", "ruins.", "", "", "", "PART THE SECOND", "", "I", "", "Many a weary year had passed since the burning of Grand-Pre,", "When on the falling tide the freighted vessels departed,", "Bearing a nation, with all its household gods, into exile.", "Exile without an end, and without an example in story.", "Far asunder, on separate coasts, the Acadians landed;", "Scattered were they, like flakes of snow, when the wind from the northeast", "Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the Banks of Newfoundland.", "Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city to city,", "From the cold lakes of the North to sultry Southern savannas,--", "From the bleak shores of the sea to the lands where the Father of Waters", "Seizes the hills in his hands, and drags them down to the ocean,", "Deep in their sands to bury the scattered bones of the mammoth.", "Friends they sought and homes; and many, despairing, heart-broken,", "Asked of the earth but a grave, and no longer a friend nor a fireside.", "Written their history stands on tablets of stone in the churchyards.", "Long among them was seen a maiden who waited and wandered,", "Lowly and meek in spirit, and patiently suffering all things.", "Fair was she and young; but, alas! before her extended,", "Dreary and vast and silent, the desert of life, with its pathway", "Marked by the graves of those who had sorrowed and suffered before her,", "Passions long extinguished, and hopes long dead and abandoned,", "As the emigrant's way o'er the Western desert is marked by", "Camp-fires long consumed, and bones that bleach in the sunshine.", "Something there was in her life incomplete, imperfect, unfinished;", "As if a morning of June, with all its music and sunshine,", "Suddenly paused in the sky, and, fading, slowly descended", "Into the east again, from whence it late had arisen.", "Sometimes she lingered in towns, till, urged by the fever within her,", "Urged by a restless longing, the hunger and thirst of the spirit,", "She would commence again her endless search and endeavor;", "Sometimes in churchyards strayed, and gazed on the crosses and tombstones,", "Sat by some nameless grave, and thought that perhaps in its bosom", "He was already at rest, and she longed to slumber beside him.", "Sometimes a rumor, a hearsay, an inarticulate whisper,", "Came with its airy hand to point and beckon her forward.", "Sometimes she spake with those who had seen her beloved and known him,", "But it was long ago, in some far-off place or forgotten.", "\"Gabriel Lajeunesse!\" they said; yes! we have seen him.", "He was with Basil the blacksmith, and both have gone to the prairies;", "Coureurs-des-Bois are they, and famous hunters and trappers.\"", "\"Gabriel Lajeunesse!\" said others; \"O yes! we have seen him.", "He is a Voyageur in the lowlands of Louisiana.\"", "Then would they say, \"Dear child! why dream and wait for him longer?", "Are there not other youths as fair as Gabriel? others", "Who have hearts as tender and true, and spirits as loyal?", "Here is Baptiste Leblanc, the notary's son, who has loved thee", "Many a tedious year; come, give him thy hand and be happy!", "Thou art too fair to be left to braid St. Catherine's tresses.\"", "Then would Evangeline answer, serenely but sadly, \"I cannot!", "Whither my heart has gone, there follows my hand, and not elsewhere.", "For when the heart goes before, like a lamp, and illumines the pathway,", "Many things are made clear, that else lie hidden in darkness.\"", "Thereupon the priest, her friend and father-confessor,", "Said, with a smile, \"O daughter! thy God thus speaketh within thee!", "Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted;", "If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters, returning", "Back to their springs, like the rain, shall fill them full of refreshment;", "That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain.", "Patience; accomplish thy labor; accomplish thy work of affection!", "Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike.", "Therefore accomplish thy labor of love, till the heart is made godlike,", "Purified, strengthened, perfected, and rendered more worthy of heaven!\"", "Cheered by the good man's words, Evangeline labored and waited.", "Still in her heart she heard the funeral dirge of the ocean,", "But with its sound there was mingled a voice that whispered, \"Despair not?\"", "Thus did that poor soul wander in want and cheerless discomfort", "Bleeding, barefooted, over the shards and thorns of existence.", "Let me essay, O Muse! to follow the wanderer's footsteps;--", "Not through each devious path, each changeful year of existence;", "But as a traveller follows a streamlet's course through the valley:", "Far from its margin at times, and seeing the gleam of its water", "Here and there, in some open space, and at intervals only;", "Then drawing nearer its banks, through sylvan glooms that conceal it,", "Though he behold it not, he can hear its continuous murmur;", "Happy, at length, if he find the spot where it reaches an outlet.", "", "", "", "II", "", "It was the month of May. Far down the Beautiful River,", "Past the Ohio shore and past the mouth of the Wabash,", "Into the golden stream of the broad and swift Mississippi,", "Floated a cumbrous boat, that was rowed by Acadian boatmen.", "It was a band of exiles: a raft, as it were, from the shipwrecked", "Nation, scattered along the coast, now floating together,", "Bound by the bonds of a common belief and a common misfortune;", "Men and women and children, who, guided by hope or by hearsay,", "Sought for their kith and their kin among the few-acred farmers", "On the Acadian coast, and the prairies of fair Opelousas.", "With them Evangeline went, and her guide, the Father Felician.", "Onward o'er sunken sands, through a wilderness sombre with forests,", "Day after day they glided adown the turbulent river;", "Night after night, by their blazing fires, encamped on its borders.", "Now through rushing chutes, among green islands, where plumelike", "Cotton-trees nodded their shadowy crests, they swept with the current,", "Then emerged into broad lagoons, where silvery sand-bars", "Lay in the stream, and along the wimpling waves of their margin,", "Shining with snow-white plumes, large flocks of pelicans waded.", "Level the landscape grew, and along the shores of the river,", "Shaded by china-trees, in the midst of luxuriant gardens,", "Stood the houses of planters, with negro-cabins and dove-cots.", "They were approaching the region where reigns perpetual summer,", "Where through the Golden Coast, and groves of orange and citron,", "Sweeps with majestic curve the river away to the eastward.", "They, too, swerved from their course; and, entering the Bayou of Plaquemine,", "Soon were lost in a maze of sluggish and devious waters,", "Which, like a network of steel, extended in every direction.", "Over their heads the towering and tenebrous boughs of the cypress", "Met in a dusky arch, and trailing mosses in mid-air", "Waved like banners that hang on the walls of ancient cathedrals.", "Deathlike the silence seemed, and unbroken, save by the herons", "Home to their roasts in the cedar-trees returning at sunset,", "Or by the owl, as he greeted the moon with demoniac laughter.", "Lovely the moonlight was as it glanced and gleamed on the water,", "Gleamed on the columns of cypress and cedar sustaining the arches,", "Down through whose broken vaults it fell as through chinks in a ruin.", "Dreamlike, and indistinct, and strange were all things around them;", "And o'er their spirits there came a feeling of wonder and sadness,--", "Strange forebodings of ill, unseen and that cannot be compassed.", "As, at the tramp of a horse's hoof on the turf of the prairies,", "Far in advance are closed the leaves of the shrinking mimosa,", "So, at the hoof-beats of fate, with sad forebodings of evil,", "Shrinks and closes the heart, ere the stroke of doom has attained it.", "But Evangeline's heart was sustained by a vision, that faintly", "Floated before her eyes, and beckoned her on through the moonlight.", "It was the thought of her brain that assumed the shape of a phantom.", "Through those shadowy aisles had Gabriel wandered before her,", "And every stroke of the oar now brought him nearer and nearer.", "", "Then in his place, at the prow of the boat, rose one of the oarsmen,", "And, as a signal sound, if others like them peradventure", "Sailed on those gloomy and midnight streams, blew a blast on his bugle.", "Wild through the dark colonnades and corridors leafy the blast rang,", "Breaking the seal of silence, and giving tongues to the forest.", "Soundless above them the banners of moss just stirred to the music.", "Multitudinous echoes awoke and died in the distance,", "Over the watery floor, and beneath the reverberant branches;", "But not a voice replied; no answer came from the darkness;", "And, when the echoes had ceased, like a sense of pain was the silence.", "Then Evangeline slept; but the boatmen rowed through the midnight,", "Silent at times, then singing familiar Canadian boat-songs,", "Such as they sang of old on their own Acadian rivers,", "While through the night were heard the mysterious sounds of the desert,", "Far off,--indistinct,--as of wave or wind in the forest,", "Mixed with the whoop of the crane and the roar of the grim alligator.", "", "Thus ere another noon they emerged from the shades; and before them", "Lay, in the golden sun, the lakes of the Atchafalaya.", "Water-lilies in myriads rocked on the slight undulations", "Made by the passing oars, and, resplendent in beauty, the lotus", "Lifted her golden crown above the heads of the boatmen.", "Faint was the air with the odorous breath of magnolia blossoms,", "And with the heat of noon; and numberless sylvan islands,", "Fragrant and thickly embowered with blossoming hedges of roses,", "Near to whose shores they glided along, invited to slumber.", "Soon by the fairest of these their weary oars were suspended.", "Under the boughs of Wachita willows, that grew by the margin,", "Safely their boat was moored; and scattered about on the greensward,", "Tired with their midnight toil, the weary travellers slumbered.", "Over them vast and high extended the cope of a cedar.", "Swinging from its great arms, the trumpet-flower and the grapevine", "Hung their ladder of ropes aloft like the ladder of Jacob,", "On whose pendulous stairs the angels ascending, descending,", "Were the swift humming-birds, that flitted from blossom to blossom.", "Such was the vision Evangeline saw as she slumbered beneath it.", "Filled was her heart with love, and the dawn of an opening heaven", "Lighted her soul in sleep with the glory of regions celestial.", "", "Nearer, ever nearer, among the numberless islands,", "Darted a light, swift boat, that sped away o'er the water,", "Urged on its course by the sinewy arms of hunters and trappers.", "Northward its prow was turned, to the land of the bison and beaver.", "At the helm sat a youth, with countenance thoughtful and careworn.", "Dark and neglected locks overshadowed his brow, and a sadness", "Somewhat beyond his years on his face was legibly written.", "Gabriel was it, who, weary with waiting, unhappy and restless,", "Sought in the Western wilds oblivion of self and of sorrow.", "Swiftly they glided along, close under the lee of the island,", "But by the opposite bank, and behind a screen of palmettos,", "So that they saw not the boat, where it lay concealed in the willows,", "All undisturbed by the dash of their oars, and unseen, were the sleepers,", "Angel of God was there none to awaken the slumbering maiden.", "Swiftly they glided away, like the shade of a cloud on the prairie.", "After the sound of their oars on the tholes had died in the distance,", "As from a magic trance the sleepers awoke, and the maiden", "Said with a sigh to the friendly priest, \"O Father Felician!", "Something says in my heart that near me Gabriel wanders.", "Is it a foolish dream, an idle and vague superstition?", "Or has an angel passed, and revealed the truth to my spirit?\"", "Then, with a blush, she added, \"Alas for my credulous fancy!", "Unto ears like thine such words as these have no meaning.\"", "But made answer the reverend man, and he smiled as he answered,--", "\"Daughter, thy words are not idle; nor are they to me without meaning.", "Feeling is deep and still; and the word that floats on the surface", "Is as the tossing buoy, that betrays where the anchor is hidden.", "Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world calls illusions.", "Gabriel truly is near thee; for not far away to the southward,", "On the banks of the Teche, are the towns of St. Maur and St. Martin.", "There the long-wandering bride shall be given again to her bridegroom,", "There the long-absent pastor regain his flock and his sheepfold.", "Beautiful is the land, with its prairies and forests of fruit-trees;", "Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the bluest of heavens", "Bending above, and resting its dome on the walls of the forest.", "They who dwell there have named it the Eden of Louisiana.\"", "", "With these words of cheer they arose and continued their journey.", "Softly the evening came. The sun from the western horizon", "Like a magician extended his golden wand o'er the landscape;", "Twinkling vapors arose; and sky and water and forest", "Seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and mingled together.", "Hanging between two skies, a cloud with edges of silver,", "Floated the boat, with its dripping oars, on the motionless water.", "Filled was Evangeline's heart with inexpressible sweetness.", "Touched by the magic spell, the sacred fountains of feeling", "Glowed with the light of love, as the skies and waters around her.", "Then from a neighboring thicket the mocking-bird, wildest of singers,", "Swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung o'er the water,", "Shook from his little throat such floods of delirious music,", "That the whole air and the woods and the waves seemed silent to listen.", "Plaintive at first were the tones and sad; then soaring to madness", "Seemed they to follow or guide the revel of frenzied Bacchantes.", "Single notes were then heard, in sorrowful, low lamentation;", "Till, having gathered them all, he flung them abroad in derision,", "As when, after a storm, a gust of wind through the tree-tops", "Shakes down the rattling rain in a crystal shower on the branches.", "With such a prelude as this, and hearts that throbbed with emotion,", "Slowly they entered the Teche, where it flows through the green Opelousas,", "And, through the amber air, above the crest of the woodland,", "Saw the column of smoke that arose from a neighboring dwelling;--", "Sounds of a horn they heard, and the distant lowing of cattle.", "", "", "III", "", "Near to the bank of the river, o'ershadowed by oaks, from whose branches", "Garlands of Spanish moss and of mystic mistletoe flaunted,", "Such as the Druids cut down with golden hatchets at Yule-tide,", "Stood, secluded and still, the house of the herdsman. A garden", "Girded it round about with a belt of luxuriant blossoms,", "Filling the air with fragrance. The house itself was of timbers", "Hewn from the cypress-tree, and carefully fitted together.", "Large and low was the roof; and on slender columns supported,", "Rose-wreathed, vine-encircled, a broad and spacious veranda,", "Haunt of the humming-bird and the bee, extended around it.", "At each end of the house, amid the flowers of the garden,", "Stationed the dove-cots were, as love's perpetual symbol,", "Scenes of endless wooing, and endless contentions of rivals.", "Silence reigned o'er the place. The line of shadow and sunshine", "Ran near the tops of the trees; but the house itself was in shadow,", "And from its chimney-top, ascending and slowly expanding", "Into the evening air, a thin blue column of smoke rose.", "In the rear of the house, from the garden gate, ran a pathway", "Through the great groves of oak to the skirts of the limitless prairie,", "Into whose sea of flowers the sun was slowly descending.", "Full in his track of light, like ships with shadowy canvas", "Hanging loose from their spars in a motionless calm in the tropics,", "Stood a cluster of trees, with tangled cordage of grapevines.", "", "Just where the woodlands met the flowery surf of the prairie,", "Mounted upon his horse, with Spanish saddle and stirrups,", "Sat a herdsman, arrayed in gaiters and doublet of deerskin.", "Broad and brown was the face that from under the Spanish sombrero", "Gazed on the peaceful scene, with the lordly look of its master.", "Round about him were numberless herds of kine, that were grazing", "Quietly in the meadows, and breathing the vapory freshness", "That uprose from the river, and spread itself over the landscape.", "Slowly lifting the horn that hung at his side, and expanding", "Fully his broad, deep chest, he blew a blast, that resounded", "Wildly and sweet and far, through the still damp air of the evening.", "Suddenly out of the grass the long white horns of the cattle", "Rose like flakes of foam on the adverse currents of ocean.", "Silent a moment they gazed, then bellowing rushed o'er the prairie,", "And the whole mass became a cloud, a shade in the distance.", "Then, as the herdsman turned to the house, through the gate of the garden", "Saw he the forms of the priest and the maiden advancing to meet him.", "Suddenly down from his horse he sprang in amazement, and forward", "Rushed with extended arms and exclamations of wonder;", "When they beheld his face, they recognized Basil the blacksmith.", "Hearty his welcome was, as he led his guests to the garden.", "There in an arbor of roses with endless question and answer", "Gave they vent to their hearts, and renewed their friendly embraces,", "Laughing and weeping by turns, or sitting silent and thoughtful.", "Thoughtful, for Gabriel came not; and now dark doubts and misgivings", "Stole o'er the maiden's heart; and Basil, somewhat embarrassed,", "Broke the silence and said, \"If you came by the Atchafalaya,", "How have you nowhere encountered my Gabriel's boat on the bayous?\"", "Over Evangeline's face at the words of Basil a shade passed.", "Tears came into her eyes, and she said, with a tremulous accent,", "\"Gone? is Gabriel gone?\" and, concealing her face on his shoulder,", "All her o'erburdened heart gave way, and she wept and lamented.", "Then the good Basil said,--and his voice grew blithe as he said it,--", "\"Be of good cheer, my child; it is only to-day he departed.", "Foolish boy! he has left me alone with my herds and my horses.", "Moody and restless grown, and tried and troubled, his spirit", "Could no longer endure the calm of this quiet existence.", "Thinking ever of thee, uncertain and sorrowful ever,", "Ever silent, or speaking only of thee and his troubles,", "He at length had become so tedious to men and to maidens,", "Tedious even to me, that at length I bethought me, and sent him", "Unto the town of Adayes to trade for mules with the Spaniards.", "Thence he will follow the Indian trails to the Ozark Mountains,", "Hunting for furs in the forests, on rivers trapping the beaver.", "Therefore be of good cheer; we will follow the fugitive lover;", "He is not far on his way, and the Fates and the streams are against him.", "Up and away to-morrow, and through the red dew of the morning", "We will follow him fast, and bring him back to his prison.\"", "", "Then glad voices were heard, and up from the banks of the river,", "Borne aloft on his comrades' arms, came Michael the fiddler.", "Long under Basil's roof had he lived like a god on Olympus,", "Having no other care than dispensing music to mortals.", "Far renowned was he for his silver locks and his fiddle.", "\"Long live Michael,\" they cried, \"our brave Acadian minstrel!\"", "As they bore him aloft in triumphal procession; and straightway", "Father Felician advanced with Evangeline, greeting the old man", "Kindly and oft, and recalling the past, while Basil, enraptured,", "Hailed with hilarious joy his old companions and gossips,", "Laughing loud and long, and embracing mothers and daughters.", "Much they marvelled to see the wealth of the cidevant blacksmith,", "All his domains and his herds, and his patriarchal demeanor;", "Much they marvelled to hear his tales of the soil and the climate,", "And of the prairie; whose numberless herds were his who would take them;", "Each one thought in his heart, that he, too, would go and do likewise.", "Thus they ascended the steps, and, crossing the breezy veranda,", "Entered the hall of the house, where already the supper of Basil", "Waited his late return; and they rested and feasted together.", "", "Over the joyous feast the sudden darkness descended.", "All was silent without, and, illuming the landscape with silver,", "Fair rose the dewy moon and the myriad stars; but within doors,", "Brighter than these, shone the faces of friends in the glimmering lamplight.", "Then from his station aloft, at the head of the table, the herdsman", "Poured forth his heart and his wine together in endless profusion.", "Lighting his pipe, that was filled with sweet Natchitoches tobacco,", "Thus he spake to his guests, who listened, and smiled as they listened:--", "\"Welcome once more, my friends, who long have been friendless and homeless,", "Welcome once more to a home, that is better perchance than the old one!", "Here no hungry winter congeals our blood like the rivers;", "Here no stony ground provokes the wrath of the farmer.", "Smoothly the ploughshare runs through the soil, as a keel through the water.", "All the year round the orange-groves are in blossom; and grass grows", "More in a single night than a whole Canadian summer.", "Here, too, numberless herds run wild and unclaimed in the prairies;", "Here, too, lands may be had for the asking, and forests of timber", "With a few blows of the axe are hewn and framed into houses.", "After your houses are built, and your fields are yellow with harvests,", "No King George of England shall drive you away from your homesteads,", "Burning your dwellings and barns, and stealing your farms and your cattle.\"", "Speaking these words, he blew a wrathful cloud from his nostrils,", "While his huge, brown hand came thundering down on the table,", "So that the guests all started; and" ], "linecount": "1014" }, { "title": "A Psalm of Life", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE PSALMIST.", "", "Tell me not, in mournful numbers,", "Life is but an empty dream!", "For the soul is dead that slumbers,", "And things are not what they seem.", "", "Life is real! Life is earnest!", "And the grave is not its goal;", "Dust thou art, to dust returnest,", "Was not spoken of the soul.", "", "Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,", "Is our destined end or way;", "But to act, that each to-morrow", "Find us farther than to-day.", "", "Art is long, and Time is fleeting,", "And our hearts, though stout and brave,", "Still, like muffled drums, are beating", "Funeral marches to the grave.", "", "In the world's broad field of battle,", "In the bivouac of Life,", "Be not like dumb, driven cattle!", "Be a hero in the strife!", "", "Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!", "Let the dead Past bury its dead!", "Act,--act in the living Present!", "Heart within, and God o'erhead!", "", "Lives of great men all remind us", "We can make our lives sublime,", "And, departing, leave behind us", "Footprints on the sands of time;--", "", "Footprints, that perhaps another,", "Sailing o'er life's solemn main,", "A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,", "Seeing, shall take heart again.", "", "Let us, then, be up and doing,", "With a heart for any fate;", "Still achieving, still pursuing,", "Learn to labor and to wait." ], "linecount": "37" }, { "title": "Hiawatha's Wooing", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "\"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!\"", "Thus the youthful Hiawatha", "Said within himself and pondered,", "Much perplexed by various feelings,", "Listless, longing, hoping, fearing,", "Dreaming still of Minnehaha,", "Of the lovely Laughing Water,", "In the land of the Dacotahs.", "\"Wed a maiden of your people,\"", "Warning said the old Nokomis;", "\"Go not eastward, go not westward,", "For a stranger, whom we know not!", "Like a fire upon the hearth-stone", "Is a neighbor's homely daughter,", "Like the starlight or the moonlight", "Is the handsomest of strangers!\"", "Thus dissuading spake Nokomis,", "And my Hiawatha answered", "Only this: \"Dear old Nokomis,", "Very pleasant is the firelight,", "But I like the starlight better,", "Better do I like the moonlight!\"", "Gravely then said old Nokomis:", "\"Bring not here an idle maiden,", "Bring not here a useless woman,", "Hands unskilful, feet unwilling;", "Bring a wife with nimble fingers,", "Heart and hand that move together,", "Feet that run on willing errands!\"", "Smiling answered Hiawatha:", "'In the land of the Dacotahs", "Lives the Arrow-maker's daughter,", "Minnehaha, Laughing Water,", "Handsomest of all the women.", "I will bring her to your wigwam,", "She shall run upon your errands,", "Be your starlight, moonlight, firelight,", "Be the sunlight of my people!\"", "Still dissuading said Nokomis:", "\"Bring not to my lodge a stranger", "From the land of the Dacotahs!", "Very fierce are the Dacotahs,", "Often is there war between us,", "There are feuds yet unforgotten,", "Wounds that ache and still may open!\"", "Laughing answered Hiawatha:", "\"For that reason, if no other,", "Would I wed the fair Dacotah,", "That our tribes might be united,", "That old feuds might be forgotten,", "And old wounds be healed forever!\"", "Thus departed Hiawatha", "To the land of the Dacotahs,", "To the land of handsome women;", "Striding over moor and meadow,", "Through interminable forests,", "Through uninterrupted silence.", "With his moccasins of magic,", "At each stride a mile he measured;", "Yet the way seemed long before him,", "And his heart outran his footsteps;", "And he journeyed without resting,", "Till he heard the cataract's laughter,", "Heard the Falls of Minnehaha", "Calling to him through the silence.", "\"Pleasant is the sound!\" he murmured,", "\"Pleasant is the voice that calls me!\"", "On the outskirts of the forests,", "'Twixt the shadow and the sunshine,", "Herds of fallow deer were feeding,", "But they saw not Hiawatha;", "To his bow he whispered, \"Fail not!\"", "To his arrow whispered, \"Swerve not!\"", "Sent it singing on its errand,", "To the red heart of the roebuck;", "Threw the deer across his shoulder,", "And sped forward without pausing.", "At the doorway of his wigwam", "Sat the ancient Arrow-maker,", "In the land of the Dacotahs,", "Making arrow-heads of jasper,", "Arrow-heads of chalcedony.", "At his side, in all her beauty,", "Sat the lovely Minnehaha,", "Sat his daughter, Laughing Water,", "Plaiting mats of flags and rushes", "Of the past the old man's thoughts were,", "And the maiden's of the future.", "He was thinking, as he sat there,", "Of the days when with such arrows", "He had struck the deer and bison,", "On the Muskoday, the meadow;", "Shot the wild goose, flying southward", "On the wing, the clamorous Wawa;", "Thinking of the great war-parties,", "How they came to buy his arrows,", "Could not fight without his arrows.", "Ah, no more such noble warriors", "Could be found on earth as they were!", "Now the men were all like women,", "Only used their tongues for weapons!", "She was thinking of a hunter,", "From another tribe and country,", "Young and tall and very handsome,", "Who one morning, in the Spring-time,", "Came to buy her father's arrows,", "Sat and rested in the wigwam,", "Lingered long about the doorway,", "Looking back as he departed.", "She had heard her father praise him,", "Praise his courage and his wisdom;", "Would he come again for arrows", "To the Falls of Minnehaha?", "On the mat her hands lay idle,", "And her eyes were very dreamy.", "Through their thoughts they heard a footstep,", "Heard a rustling in the branches,", "And with glowing cheek and forehead,", "With the deer upon his shoulders,", "Suddenly from out the woodlands", "Hiawatha stood before them.", "Straight the ancient Arrow-maker", "Looked up gravely from his labor,", "Laid aside the unfinished arrow,", "Bade him enter at the doorway,", "Saying, as he rose to meet him,", "'Hiawatha, you are welcome!\"", "At the feet of Laughing Water", "Hiawatha laid his burden,", "Threw the red deer from his shoulders;", "And the maiden looked up at him,", "Looked up from her mat of rushes,", "Said with gentle look and accent,", "\"You are welcome, Hiawatha!\"", "Very spacious was the wigwam,", "Made of deer-skins dressed and whitened,", "With the Gods of the Dacotahs", "Drawn and painted on its curtains,", "And so tall the doorway, hardly", "Hiawatha stooped to enter,", "Hardly touched his eagle-feathers", "As he entered at the doorway.", "Then uprose the Laughing Water,", "From the ground fair Minnehaha,", "Laid aside her mat unfinished,", "Brought forth food and set before them,", "Water brought them from the brooklet,", "Gave them food in earthen vessels,", "Gave them drink in bowls of bass-wood,", "Listened while the guest was speaking,", "Listened while her father answered,", "But not once her lips she opened,", "Not a single word she uttered.", "Yes, as in a dream she listened", "To the words of Hiawatha,", "As he talked of old Nokomis,", "Who had nursed him in his childhood,", "As he told of his companions,", "Chibiabos, the musician,", "And the very strong man, Kwasind,", "And of happiness and plenty", "In the land of the Ojibways,", "In the pleasant land and peaceful.", "\"After many years of warfare,", "Many years of strife and bloodshed,", "There is peace between the Ojibways", "And the tribe of the Dacotahs.\"", "Thus continued Hiawatha,", "And then added, speaking slowly,", "\"That this peace may last forever,", "And our hands be clasped more closely,", "And our hearts be more united,", "Give me as my wife this maiden,", "Minnehaha, Laughing Water,", "Loveliest of Dacotah women!\"", "And the ancient Arrow-maker", "Paused a moment ere he answered,", "Smoked a little while in silence,", "Looked at Hiawatha proudly,", "Fondly looked at Laughing Water,", "And made answer very gravely:", "\"Yes, if Minnehaha wishes;", "Let your heart speak, Minnehaha!\"", "And the lovely Laughing Water", "Seemed more lovely as she stood there,", "Neither willing nor reluctant,", "As she went to Hiawatha,", "Softly took the seat beside him,", "While she said, and blushed to say it,", "\"I will follow you, my husband!\"", "This was Hiawatha's wooing!", "Thus it was he won the daughter", "Of the ancient Arrow-maker,", "In the land of the Dacotahs!", "From the wigwam he departed,", "Leading with him Laughing Water;", "Hand in hand they went together,", "Through the woodland and the meadow,", "Left the old man standing lonely", "At the doorway of his wigwam,", "Heard the Falls of Minnehaha", "Calling to them from the distance,", "Crying to them from afar off,", "\"Fare thee well, O Minnehaha!\"", "And the ancient Arrow-maker", "Turned again unto his labor,", "Sat down by his sunny doorway,", "Murmuring to himself, and saying:", "\"Thus it is our daughters leave us,", "Those we love, and those who love us!", "Just when they have learned to help us,", "When we are old and lean upon them,", "Comes a youth with flaunting feathers,", "With his flute of reeds, a stranger", "Wanders piping through the village,", "Beckons to the fairest maiden,", "And she follows where he leads her,", "Leaving all things for the stranger!\"", "Pleasant was the journey homeward,", "Through interminable forests,", "Over meadow, over mountain,", "Over river, hill, and hollow.", "Short it seemed to Hiawatha,", "Though they journeyed very slowly,", "Though his pace he checked and slackened", "To the steps of Laughing Water.", "Over wide and rushing rivers", "In his arms he bore the maiden;", "Light he thought her as a feather,", "As the plume upon his head-gear;", "Cleared the tangled pathway for her,", "Bent aside the swaying branches,", "Made at night a lodge of branches,", "And a bed with boughs of hemlock,", "And a fire before the doorway", "With the dry cones of the pine-tree.", "All the travelling winds went with them,", "O'er the meadows, through the forest;", "All the stars of night looked at them,", "Watched with sleepless eyes their slumber;", "From his ambush in the oak-tree", "Peeped the squirrel, Adjidaumo,", "Watched with eager eyes the lovers;", "And the rabbit, the Wabasso,", "Scampered from the path before them,", "Peering, peeping from his burrow,", "Sat erect upon his haunches,", "Watched with curious eyes the lovers.", "Pleasant was the journey homeward!", "All the birds sang loud and sweetly", "Songs of happiness and heart's-ease;", "Sang the bluebird, the Owaissa,", "\"Happy are you, Hiawatha,", "Having such a wife to love you!\"", "Sang the robin, the Opechee,", "\"Happy are you, Laughing Water,", "Having such a noble husband!\"", "From the sky the sun benignant", "Looked upon them through the branches,", "Saying to them, \"O my children,", "Love is sunshine, hate is shadow,", "Life is checkered shade and sunshine,", "Rule by love, O Hiawatha!\"", "From the sky the moon looked at them,", "Filled the lodge with mystic splendors,", "Whispered to them, \"O my children,", "Day is restless, night is quiet,", "Man imperious, woman feeble;", "Half is mine, although I follow;", "Rule by patience, Laughing Water!\"", "Thus it was they journeyed homeward;", "Thus it was that Hiawatha", "To the lodge of old Nokomis", "Brought the moonlight, starlight, firelight,", "Brought the sunshine of his people,", "Minnehaha, Laughing Water,", "Handsomest of all the women", "In the land of the Dacotahs,", "In the land of handsome women." ], "linecount": "283" }, { "title": "Moonlight", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "As a pale phantom with a lamp", "Ascends some ruin's haunted stair,", "So glides the moon along the damp", "Mysterious chambers of the air.", "", "Now hidden in cloud, and now revealed,", "As if this phantom, full of pain,", "Were by the crumbling walls concealed,", "And at the windows seen again.", "", "Until at last, serene and proud", "In all the splendor of her light,", "She walks the terraces of cloud,", "Supreme as Empress of the Night.", "", "I look, but recognize no more", "Objects familiar to my view;", "The very pathway to my door", "Is an enchanted avenue.", "", "All things are changed. One mass of shade,", "The elm-trees drop their curtains down;", "By palace, park, and colonnade", "I walk as in a foreign town.", "", "The very ground beneath my feet", "Is clothed with a diviner air;", "While marble paves the silent street", "And glimmers in the empty square.", "", "Illusion! Underneath there lies", "The common life of every day;", "Only the spirit glorifies", "With its own tints the sober gray.", "", "In vain we look, in vain uplift", "Our eyes to heaven, if we are blind;", "We see but what we have the gift", "Of seeing; what we bring we find." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "In that desolate land and lone,", "Where the Big Horn and Yellowstone", "Roar down their mountain path,", "By their fires the Sioux Chiefs", "Muttered their woes and griefs", "And the menace of their wrath.", "", "\"Revenge!\" cried Rain-in-the-Face,", "\"Revenue upon all the race", "Of the White Chief with yellow hair!\"", "And the mountains dark and high", "From their crags re-echoed the cry", "Of his anger and despair.", "", "In the meadow, spreading wide", "By woodland and riverside", "The Indian village stood;", "All was silent as a dream,", "Save the rushing a of the stream", "And the blue-jay in the wood.", "", "In his war paint and his beads,", "Like a bison among the reeds,", "In ambush the Sitting Bull", "Lay with three thousand braves", "Crouched in the clefts and caves,", "Savage, unmerciful!", "", "Into the fatal snare", "The White Chief with yellow hair", "And his three hundred men", "Dashed headlong, sword in hand;", "But of that gallant band", "Not one returned again.", "", "The sudden darkness of death", "Overwhelmed them like the breath", "And smoke of a furnace fire:", "By the river's bank, and between", "The rocks of the ravine,", "They lay in their bloody attire.", "", "But the foemen fled in the night,", "And Rain-in-the-Face, in his flight", "Uplifted high in air", "As a ghastly trophy, bore", "The brave heart, that beat no more,", "Of the White Chief with yellow hair.", "", "Whose was the right and the wrong?", "Sing it, O funeral song,", "With a voice that is full of tears,", "And say that our broken faith", "Wrought all this ruin and scathe,", "In the Year of a Hundred Years." ], "linecount": "48" }, { "title": "The Children's Hour", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Between the dark and the daylight,", "When the night is beginning to lower,", "Comes a pause in the day's occupation,", "That is know as the children's hour.", "", "I hear in the chamber above me", "The patter of little feet,", "The sound of a door that is opened,", "And voices soft and sweet.", "", "From my study I see in the lamplight,", "Descending the broad hall stair,", "Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,", "And Edith with golden hair.", "", "A whisper and then a silence:", "Yet I know by their merry eyes,", "They are plotting and planning together,", "To take me by surprise.", "", "A sudden rush from the stairway,", "A sudden raid from the hall!", "By three doors left unguarded", "They enter my castle wall!", "", "They climb up into my turret", "O'er the arms and back of my chair;", "If I try to escape, they surround me,", "They seem to be everywhere.", "", "They almost devour me with kisses,", "Their arms about me entwine,", "Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen", "In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!", "", "Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,", "Because you have scaled the wall,", "Such an old mustache as I am", "Is not a match for you all?", "", "I have you fast in my fortress", "And will not let you depart,", "But put you down in the dungeon", "In the round-tower of my heart.", "", "And there will I keep you forever,", "Yes, forever and a day,", "Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,", "And moulder in dust away!" ], "linecount": "40" }, { "title": "THE EVENING STAR", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Lo! in the painted oriel of the West,", "Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines,", "Like a fair lady at her casement, shines", "The evening star, the star of love and rest!", "And then anon she doth herself divest", "Of all her radiant garments, and reclines", "Behind the sombre screen of yonder pines,", "With slumber and soft dreams of love oppressed.", "O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus!", "My morning and my evening star of love!", "My best and gentlest lady! even thus,", "As that fair planet in the sky above,", "Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night,", "And from thy darkened window fades the light." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "AUTUMN", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,", "With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,", "Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,", "And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!", "Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,", "Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand", "Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,", "Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!", "Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended", "So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;", "Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;", "Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;", "And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,", "Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Holidays", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "The holiest of all holidays are those", "Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;", "The secret anniversaries of the heart,", "When the full river of feeling overflows;--", "The happy days unclouded to their close;", "The sudden joys that out of darkness start", "As flames from ashes; swift desires that dart", "Like swallows singing down each wind that blows!", "White as the gleam of a receding sail,", "White as a cloud that floats and fades in air,", "White as the whitest lily on a stream,", "These tender memories are;--a fairy tale", "Of some enchanted land we know not where,", "But lovely as a landscape in a dream." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "AFTERNOON IN FEBRUARY", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "The day is ending,", "The night is descending;", "The marsh is frozen,", "The river dead.", "", "Through clouds like ashes", "The red sun flashes", "On village windows", "That glimmer red.", "", "The snow recommences;", "The buried fences", "Mark no longer", "The road o'er the plain;", "", "While through the meadows,", "Like fearful shadows,", "Slowly passes", "A funeral train.", "", "The bell is pealing,", "And every feeling", "Within me responds", "To the dismal knell;", "", "Shadows are trailing,", "My heart is bewailing", "And tolling within", "Like a funeral bell." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "The Rainy Day", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "The day is cold, and dark, and dreary", "It rains, and the wind is never weary;", "The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,", "But at every gust the dead leaves fall,", "And the day is dark and dreary.", "", "My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;", "It rains, and the wind is never weary;", "My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,", "But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,", "And the days are dark and dreary.", "", "Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;", "Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;", "Thy fate is the common fate of all,", "Into each life some rain must fall,", "Some days must be dark and dreary." ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "The Building of the Ship", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "\"Build me straight, O worthy Master!", "Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel,", "That shall laugh at all disaster,", "And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!\"", "The merchant's word", "Delighted the Master heard;", "For his heart was in his work, and the heart", "Giveth grace unto every Art.", "A quiet smile played round his lips,", "As the eddies and dimples of the tide", "Play round the bows of ships,", "That steadily at anchor ride.", "And with a voice that was full of glee,", "He answered, \"Erelong we will launch", "A vessel as goodly, and strong, and stanch,", "As ever weathered a wintry sea!\"", "And first with nicest skill and art,", "Perfect and finished in every part,", "A little model the Master wrought,", "Which should be to the larger plan", "What the child is to the man,", "Its counterpart in miniature;", "That with a hand more swift and sure", "The greater labor might be brought", "To answer to his inward thought.", "And as he labored, his mind ran o'er", "The various ships that were built of yore,", "And above them all, and strangest of all", "Towered the Great Harry, crank and tall,", "Whose picture was hanging on the wall,", "With bows and stern raised high in air,", "And balconies hanging here and there,", "And signal lanterns and flags afloat,", "And eight round towers, like those that frown", "From some old castle, looking down", "Upon the drawbridge and the moat.", "And he said with a smile, \"Our ship, I wis,", "Shall be of another form than this!\"", "It was of another form, indeed;", "Built for freight, and yet for speed,", "A beautiful and gallant craft;", "Broad in the beam, that the stress of the blast,", "Pressing down upon sail and mast,", "Might not the sharp bows overwhelm;", "Broad in the beam, but sloping aft", "With graceful curve and slow degrees,", "That she might be docile to the helm,", "And that the currents of parted seas,", "Closing behind, with mighty force,", "Might aid and not impede her course.", "In the ship-yard stood the Master,", "With the model of the vessel,", "That should laugh at all disaster,", "And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!", "Covering many a rood of ground,", "Lay the timber piled around;", "Timber of chestnut, and elm, and oak,", "And scattered here and there, with these,", "The knarred and crooked cedar knees;", "Brought from regions far away,", "From Pascagoula's sunny bay,", "And the banks of the roaring Roanoke!", "Ah! what a wondrous thing it is", "To note how many wheels of toil", "One thought, one word, can set in motion!", "There 's not a ship that sails the ocean,", "But every climate, every soil,", "Must bring its tribute, great or small,", "And help to build the wooden wall!", "The sun was rising o'er the sea,", "And long the level shadows lay,", "As if they, too, the beams would be", "Of some great, airy argosy,", "Framed and launched in a single day.", "That silent architect, the sun,", "Had hewn and laid them every one,", "Ere the work of man was yet begun.", "Beside the Master, when he spoke,", "A youth, against an anchor leaning,", "Listened, to catch his slightest meaning.", "Only the long waves, as they broke", "In ripples on the pebbly beach,", "Interrupted the old man's speech.", "Beautiful they were, in sooth,", "The old man and the fiery youth!", "The old man, in whose busy brain", "Many a ship that sailed the main", "Was modelled o'er and o'er again;", "--", "The fiery youth, who was to be", "The heir of his dexterity,", "The heir of his house, and his daughter's hand,", "When he had built and launched from land", "What the elder head had planned.", "\"Thus,\" said he, \"will we build this ship!", "Lay square the blocks upon the slip,", "And follow well this plan of mine.", "Choose the timbers with greatest care;", "Of all that is unsound beware;", "For only what is sound and strong", "To this vessel shall belong.", "Cedar of Maine and Georgia pine", "Here together shall combine.", "A goodly frame, and a goodly fame,", "And the Union be her name!", "For the day that gives her to the sea", "Shall give my daughter unto thee!\"", "The Master's word", "Enraptured the young man heard;", "And as he turned his face aside,", "With a look of joy and a thrill of pride", "Standing before", "Her father's door,", "He saw the form of his promised bride.", "The sun shone on her golden hair,", "And her cheek was glowing fresh and fair,", "With the breath of morn and the soft sea air.", "Like a beauteous barge was she,", "Still at rest on the sandy beach,", "Just beyond the billow's reach;", "But he", "Was the restless, seething, stormy sea!", "Ah, how skilful grows the hand", "That obeyeth Love's command!", "It is the heart, and not the brain,", "That to the highest doth attain,", "And he who followeth Love's behest", "Far excelleth all the rest!", "Thus with the rising of the sun", "Was the noble task begun,", "And soon throughout the ship-yard's bounds", "Were heard the intermingled sounds", "Of axes and of mallets, plied", "With vigorous arms on every side;", "Plied so deftly and so well,", "That, ere the shadows of evening fell,", "The keel of oak for a noble ship,", "Scarfed and bolted, straight and strong,", "Was lying ready, and stretched along", "The blocks, well placed upon the slip.", "Happy, thrice happy, every one", "Who sees his labor well begun,", "And not perplexed and multiplied,", "By idly waiting for time and tide!", "And when the hot, long day was o'er,", "The young man at the Master's door", "Sat with the maiden calm and still,", "And within the porch, a little more", "Removed beyond the evening chill,", "The father sat, and told them tales", "Of wrecks in the great September gales,", "Of pirates coasting the Spanish Main,", "And ships that never came back again,", "The chance and change of a sailor's life,", "Want and plenty, rest and strife,", "His roving fancy, like the wind,", "That nothing can stay and nothing can bind,", "And the magic charm of foreign lands,", "With shadows of palms, and shining sands,", "Where the tumbling surf,", "O'er the coral reefs of Madagascar,", "Washes the feet of the swarthy Lascar,", "As he lies alone and asleep on the turf.", "And the trembling maiden held her breath", "At the tales of that awful, pitiless sea,", "With all its terror and mystery,", "The dim, dark sea, so like unto Death,", "That divides and yet unites mankind!", "And whenever the old man paused, a gleam", "From the bowl of his pipe would awhile illume", "The silent group in the twilight gloom,", "And thoughtful faces, as in a dream;", "And for a moment one might mark", "What had been hidden by the dark,", "That the head of the maiden lay at rest,", "Tenderly, on the young man's breast!", "Day by day the vessel grew,", "With timbers fashioned strong and true,", "Stemson and keelson and sternson-knee,", "Till, framed with perfect symmetry,", "A skeleton ship rose up to view!", "And around the bows and along the side", "The heavy hammers and mallets plied,", "Till after many a week, at length,", "Wonderful for form and strength,", "Sublime in its enormous bulk,", "Loomed aloft the shadowy hulk!", "And around it columns of smoke, upwreathing,", "Rose from the boiling, bubbling, seething", "Caldron, that glowed,", "And overflowed", "With the black tar, heated for the sheathing.", "And amid the clamors", "Of clattering hammers,", "He who listened heard now and then", "The song of the Master and his men:", "--", "\"Build me straight, O worthy Master,", "Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel,", "That shall laugh at all disaster,", "And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!\"", "With oaken brace and copper band,", "Lay the rudder on the sand,", "That, like a thought, should have control", "Over the movement of the whole;", "And near it the anchor, whose giant hand", "Would reach down and grapple with the land,", "And immovable and fast", "Hold the great ship against the bellowing blast!", "And at the bows an image stood,", "By a cunning artist carved in wood,", "With robes of white, that far behind", "Seemed to be fluttering in the wind.", "It was not shaped in a classic mould,", "Not like a Nymph or Goddess of old,", "Or Naiad rising from the water,", "But modelled from the Master's daughter!", "On many a dreary and misty night,", "'T will be seen by the rays of the signal light,", "Speeding along through the rain and the dark,", "Like a ghost in its snow-white sark,", "The pilot of some phantom bark,", "Guiding the vessel, in its flight,", "By a path none other knows aright!", "Behold, at last,", "Each tall and tapering mast", "Is swung into its place;", "Shrouds and stays", "Holding it firm and fast!", "Long ago,", "In the deer-haunted forests of Maine,", "When upon mountain and plain", "Lay the snow,", "They fell, -- those lordly pines!", "Those grand, majestic pines!", "'Mid shouts and cheers", "The jaded steers,", "Panting beneath the goad,", "Dragged down the weary, winding road", "Those captive kings so straight and tall,", "To be shorn of their streaming hair,", "And naked and bare,", "To feel the stress and the strain", "Of the wind and the reeling main,", "Whose roar", "Would remind them forevermore", "Of their native forests they should not see again.", "And everywhere", "The slender, graceful spars", "Poise aloft in the air,", "And at the mast-head,", "White, blue, and red,", "A flag unrolls the stripes and stars.", "Ah! when the wanderer, lonely, friendless,", "In foreign harbors shall behold", "That flag unrolled,", "'T will be as a friendly hand", "Stretched out from his native land,", "Filling his heart with memories sweet and endless!", "All is finished! and at length", "Has come the bridal day", "Of beauty and of strength.", "To-day the vessel shall be launched!", "With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched,", "And o'er the bay,", "Slowly, in all his splendors dight,", "The great sun rises to behold the sight.", "The ocean old,", "Centuries old,", "Strong as youth, and as uncontrolled,", "Paces restless to and fro,", "Up and down the sands of gold.", "His beating heart is not at rest;", "And far and wide,", "With ceaseless flow,", "His beard of snow", "Heaves with the heaving of his breast.", "He waits impatient for his bride.", "There she stands,", "With her foot upon the sands,", "Decked with flags and streamers gay,", "In honor of her marriage day,", "Her snow-white signals fluttering, blending,", "Round her like a veil descending,", "Ready to be", "The bride of the gray old sea.", "On the deck another bride", "Is standing by her lover's side.", "Shadows from the flags and shrouds,", "Like the shadows cast by clouds,", "Broken by many a sunny fleck,", "Fall around them on the deck.", "The prayer is said,", "The service read,", "The joyous bridegroom bows his head;", "And in tears the good old Master", "Shakes the brown hand of his son,", "Kisses his daughter's glowing cheek", "In silence, for he cannot speak,", "And ever faster", "Down his own the tears begin to run.", "The worthy pastor --", "The shepherd of that wandering flock,", "That has the ocean for its wold,", "That has the vessel for its fold,", "Leaping ever from rock to rock --", "Spake, with accents mild and clear,", "Words of warning, words of cheer,", "But tedious to the bridegroom's ear.", "He knew the chart", "Of the sailor's heart,", "All its pleasures and its griefs,", "All its shallows and rocky reefs,", "All those secret currents, that flow", "With such resistless undertow,", "And lift and drift, with terrible force,", "The will from its moorings and its course.", "Therefore he spake, and thus said he: --", "\"Like unto ships far off at sea,", "Outward or homeward bound, are we.", "Before, behind, and all around,", "Floats and swings the horizon's bound,", "Seems at its distant rim to rise", "And climb the crystal wall of the skies,", "And then again to turn and sink,", "As if we could slide from its outer brink.", "Ah! it is not the sea,", "It is not the sea that sinks and shelves,", "But ourselves", "That rock and rise", "With endless and uneasy motion,", "Now touching the very skies,", "Now sinking into the depths of ocean.", "Ah! if our souls but poise and swing", "Like the compass in its brazen ring,", "Ever level and ever true", "To the toil and the task we have to do,", "We shall sail securely, and safely reach", "The Fortunate Isles, on whose shining beach", "The sights we see, and the sounds we hear,", "Will be those of joy and not of fear!\"", "Then the Master,", "With a gesture of command,", "Waved his hand;", "And at the word,", "Loud and sudden there was heard,", "All around them and below,", "The sound of hammers, blow on blow,", "Knocking away the shores and spurs.", "And see! she stirs!", "She starts, -- she moves, -- she seems to feel", "The thrill of life along her keel,", "And, spurning with her foot the ground,", "With one exulting, joyous bound,", "She leaps into the ocean's arms!", "And lo! from the assembled crowd", "There rose a shout, prolonged and loud,", "That to the ocean seemed to say,", "\"Take her, O bridegroom, old and gray,", "Take her to thy protecting arms,", "With all her youth and all her charms!\"", "How beautiful she is! How fair", "She lies within those arms, that press", "Her form with many a soft caress", "Of tenderness and watchful care!", "Sail forth into the sea, O ship!", "Through wind and wave, right onward steer!", "The moistened eye, the trembling lip,", "Are not the signs of doubt or fear.", "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!", "Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!", "Sail on, O Union, strong and great!", "Humanity with all its fears,", "With all the hopes of future years,", "Is hanging breathless on thy fate!", "We know what Master laid thy keel,", "What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,", "Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,", "What anvils rang, what hammers beat,", "In what a forge and what a heat", "Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!", "Fear not each sudden sound and shock,", "'T is of the wave and not the rock;", "'T is but the flapping of the sail,", "And not a rent made by the gale!", "In spite of rock and tempest's roar,", "In spite of false lights on the shore,", "Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!", "Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,", "Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,", "Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,", "Are all with thee, -- are all with thee!" ], "linecount": "400" }, { "title": "Nature", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,", "Leads by the hand her little child to bed,", "Half willing, half reluctant to be led,", "And leave his broken playthings on the floor,", "Still gazing at them through the open door,", "Nor wholly reassured and comforted", "By promises of others in their stead,", "Which though more splendid, may not please him more;", "So Nature deals with us, and takes away", "Our playthings one by one, and by the hand", "Leads us to rest so gently, that we go", "Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay,", "Being too full of sleep to understand", "How far the unknown transcends the what we know." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "TO A CHILD", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Dear child! how radiant on thy mother's knee,", "With merry-making eyes and jocund smiles,", "Thou gazest at the painted tiles,", "Whose figures grace,", "With many a grotesque form and face.", "The ancient chimney of thy nursery!", "The lady with the gay macaw,", "The dancing girl, the grave bashaw", "With bearded lip and chin;", "And, leaning idly o'er his gate,", "Beneath the imperial fan of state,", "The Chinese mandarin.", "", "With what a look of proud command", "Thou shakest in thy little hand", "The coral rattle with its silver bells,", "Making a merry tune!", "Thousands of years in Indian seas", "That coral grew, by slow degrees,", "Until some deadly and wild monsoon", "Dashed it on Coromandel's sand!", "Those silver bells", "Reposed of yore,", "As shapeless ore,", "Far down in the deep-sunken wells", "Of darksome mines,", "In some obscure and sunless place,", "Beneath huge Chimborazo's base,", "Or Potosi's o'erhanging pines", "And thus for thee, O little child,", "Through many a danger and escape,", "The tall ships passed the stormy cape;", "For thee in foreign lands remote,", "Beneath a burning, tropic clime,", "The Indian peasant, chasing the wild goat,", "Himself as swift and wild,", "In falling, clutched the frail arbute,", "The fibres of whose shallow root,", "Uplifted from the soil, betrayed", "The silver veins beneath it laid,", "The buried treasures of the miser, Time.", "", "But, lo! thy door is left ajar!", "Thou hearest footsteps from afar!", "And, at the sound,", "Thou turnest round", "With quick and questioning eyes,", "Like one, who, in a foreign land,", "Beholds on every hand", "Some source of wonder and surprise!", "And, restlessly, impatiently,", "Thou strivest, strugglest, to be free,", "The four walls of thy nursery", "Are now like prison walls to thee.", "No more thy mother's smiles,", "No more the painted tiles,", "Delight thee, nor the playthings on the floor,", "That won thy little, beating heart before;", "Thou strugglest for the open door.", "", "Through these once solitary halls", "Thy pattering footstep falls.", "The sound of thy merry voice", "Makes the old walls", "Jubilant, and they rejoice", "With the joy of thy young heart,", "O'er the light of whose gladness", "No shadows of sadness", "From the sombre background of memory start.", "", "Once, ah, once, within these walls,", "One whom memory oft recalls,", "The Father of his Country, dwelt.", "And yonder meadows broad and damp", "The fires of the besieging camp", "Encircled with a burning belt.", "Up and down these echoing stairs,", "Heavy with the weight of cares,", "Sounded his majestic tread;", "Yes, within this very room", "Sat he in those hours of gloom,", "Weary both in heart and head.", "", "But what are these grave thoughts to thee?", "Out, out! into the open air!", "Thy only dream is liberty,", "Thou carest little how or where.", "I see thee eager at thy play,", "Now shouting to the apples on the tree,", "With cheeks as round and red as they;", "And now among the yellow stalks,", "Among the flowering shrubs and plants,", "As restless as the bee.", "Along the garden walks,", "The tracks of thy small carriage-wheels I trace;", "And see at every turn how they efface", "Whole villages of sand-roofed tents,", "That rise like golden domes", "Above the cavernous and secret homes", "Of wandering and nomadic tribes of ants.", "Ah, cruel little Tamerlane,", "Who, with thy dreadful reign,", "Dost persecute and overwhelm", "These hapless Troglodytes of thy realm!", "What! tired already! with those suppliant looks,", "And voice more beautiful than a poet's books,", "Or murmuring sound of water as it flows.", "Thou comest back to parley with repose;", "This rustic seat in the old apple-tree,", "With its o'erhanging golden canopy", "Of leaves illuminate with autumnal hues,", "And shining with the argent light of dews,", "Shall for a season be our place of rest.", "Beneath us, like an oriole's pendent nest,", "From which the laughing birds have taken wing,", "By thee abandoned, hangs thy vacant swing.", "Dream-like the waters of the river gleam;", "A sailless vessel drops adown the stream,", "And like it, to a sea as wide and deep,", "Thou driftest gently down the tides of sleep.", "", "O child! O new-born denizen", "Of life's great city! on thy head", "The glory of the morn is shed,", "Like a celestial benison!", "Here at the portal thou dost stand,", "And with thy little hand", "Thou openest the mysterious gate", "Into the future's undiscovered land.", "I see its valves expand,", "As at the touch of Fate!", "Into those realms of love and hate,", "Into that darkness blank and drear,", "By some prophetic feeling taught,", "I launch the bold, adventurous thought,", "Freighted with hope and fear;", "As upon subterranean streams,", "In caverns unexplored and dark,", "Men sometimes launch a fragile bark,", "Laden with flickering fire,", "And watch its swift-receding beams,", "Until at length they disappear,", "And in the distant dark expire.", "", "By what astrology of fear or hope", "Dare I to cast thy horoscope!", "Like the new moon thy life appears;", "A little strip of silver light,", "And widening outward into night", "The shadowy disk of future years;", "And yet upon its outer rim,", "A luminous circle, faint and dim,", "And scarcely visible to us here,", "Rounds and completes the perfect sphere;", "A prophecy and intimation,", "A pale and feeble adumbration,", "Of the great world of light, that lies", "Behind all human destinies.", "", "Ah! if thy fate, with anguish fraught,", "Should be to wet the dusty soil", "With the hot tears and sweat of toil,--", "To struggle with imperious thought,", "Until the overburdened brain,", "Weary with labor, faint with pain,", "Like a jarred pendulum, retain", "Only its motion, not its power,--", "Remember, in that perilous hour,", "When most afflicted and oppressed,", "From labor there shall come forth rest.", "", "And if a more auspicious fate", "On thy advancing steps await", "Still let it ever be thy pride", "To linger by the laborer's side;", "With words of sympathy or song", "To cheer the dreary march along", "Of the great army of the poor,", "O'er desert sand, o'er dangerous moor.", "Nor to thyself the task shall be", "Without reward; for thou shalt learn", "The wisdom early to discern", "True beauty in utility;", "As great Pythagoras of yore,", "Standing beside the blacksmith's door,", "And hearing the hammers, as they smote", "The anvils with a different note,", "Stole from the varying tones, that hung", "Vibrant on every iron tongue,", "The secret of the sounding wire.", "And formed the seven-chorded lyre.", "", "Enough! I will not play the Seer;", "I will no longer strive to ope", "The mystic volume, where appear", "The herald Hope, forerunning Fear,", "And Fear, the pursuivant of Hope.", "Thy destiny remains untold;", "For, like Acestes' shaft of old,", "The swift thought kindles as it flies,", "And burns to ashes in the skies." ], "linecount": "191" }, { "title": "The Son Of The Evening Star", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Can it be the sun descending", "O'er the level plain of water?", "Or the Red Swan floating, flying,", "Wounded by the magic arrow,", "Staining all the waves with crimson,", "With the crimson of its life-blood,", "Filling all the air with splendor,", "With the splendor of its plumage?", "Yes; it is the sun descending,", "Sinking down into the water;", "All the sky is stained with purple,", "All the water flushed with crimson!", "No; it is the Red Swan floating,", "Diving down beneath the water;", "To the sky its wings are lifted,", "With its blood the waves are reddened!", "Over it the Star of Evening", "Melts and trembles through the purple,", "Hangs suspended in the twilight.", "No; it is a bead of wampum", "On the robes of the Great Spirit", "As he passes through the twilight,", "Walks in silence through the heavens.", "This with joy beheld Iagoo", "And he said in haste: \"Behold it!", "See the sacred Star of Evening!", "You shall hear a tale of wonder,", "Hear the story of Osseo,", "Son of the Evening Star, Osseo!", "\"Once, in days no more remembered,", "Ages nearer the beginning,", "When the heavens were closer to us,", "And the Gods were more familiar,", "In the North-land lived a hunter,", "With ten young and comely daughters,", "Tall and lithe as wands of willow;", "Only Oweenee, the youngest,", "She the wilful and the wayward,", "She the silent, dreamy maiden,", "Was the fairest of the sisters.", "\"All these women married warriors,", "Married brave and haughty husbands;", "Only Oweenee, the youngest,", "Laughed and flouted all her lovers,", "All her young and handsome suitors,", "And then married old Osseo,", "Old Osseo, poor and ugly,", "Broken with age and weak with coughing,", "Always coughing like a squirrel.", "\"Ah, but beautiful within him", "Was the spirit of Osseo,", "From the Evening Star descended,", "Star of Evening, Star of Woman,", "Star of tenderness and passion!", "All its fire was in his bosom,", "All its beauty in his spirit,", "All its mystery in his being,", "All its splendor in his language!", "\"And her lovers, the rejected,", "Handsome men with belts of wampum,", "Handsome men with paint and feathers.", "Pointed at her in derision,", "Followed her with jest and laughter.", "But she said: 'I care not for you,", "Care not for your belts of wampum,", "Care not for your paint and feathers,", "Care not for your jests and laughter;", "I am happy with Osseo!'", "'Once to some great feast invited,", "Through the damp and dusk of evening,", "Walked together the ten sisters,", "Walked together with their husbands;", "Slowly followed old Osseo,", "With fair Oweenee beside him;", "All the others chatted gayly,", "These two only walked in silence.", "\"At the western sky Osseo", "Gazed intent, as if imploring,", "Often stopped and gazed imploring", "At the trembling Star of Evening,", "At the tender Star of Woman;", "And they heard him murmur softly,", "'Ah, showain nemeshin, Nosa!", "Pity, pity me, my father!'", "'Listen!' said the eldest sister,", "'He is praying to his father!", "What a pity that the old man", "Does not stumble in the pathway,", "Does not break his neck by falling!'", "And they laughed till all the forest", "Rang with their unseemly laughter.", "\"On their pathway through the woodlands", "Lay an oak, by storms uprooted,", "Lay the great trunk of an oak-tree,", "Buried half in leaves and mosses,", "Mouldering, crumbling, huge and hollow.", "And Osseo, when he saw it,", "Gave a shout, a cry of anguish,", "Leaped into its yawning cavern,", "At one end went in an old man,", "Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly;", "From the other came a young man,", "Tall and straight and strong and handsome.", "\"Thus Osseo was transfigured,", "Thus restored to youth and beauty;", "But, alas for good Osseo,", "And for Oweenee, the faithful!", "Strangely, too, was she transfigured.", "Changed into a weak old woman,", "With a staff she tottered onward,", "Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly!", "And the sisters and their husbands", "Laughed until the echoing forest", "Rang with their unseemly laughter.", "\"But Osseo turned not from her,", "Walked with slower step beside her,", "Took her hand, as brown and withered", "As an oak-leaf is in Winter,", "Called her sweetheart, Nenemoosha,", "Soothed her with soft words of kindness,", "Till they reached the lodge of feasting,", "Till they sat down in the wigwam,", "Sacred to the Star of Evening,", "To the tender Star of Woman.", "\"Wrapt in visions, lost in dreaming,", "At the banquet sat Osseo;", "All were merry, all were happy,", "All were joyous but Osseo.", "Neither food nor drink he tasted,", "Neither did he speak nor listen;", "But as one bewildered sat he,", "Looking dreamily and sadly,", "First at Oweenee, then upward", "At the gleaming sky above them.", "\"Then a voice was heard, a whisper,", "Coming from the starry distance,", "Coming from the empty vastness,", "Low, and musical, and tender;", "And the voice said: 'O Osseo!", "O my son, my best beloved!", "Broken are the spells that bound you,", "All the charms of the magicians,", "All the magic powers of evil;", "Come to me; ascend, Osseo!", "\"'Taste the food that stands before you:", "It is blessed and enchanted,", "It has magic virtues in it,", "It will change you to a spirit.", "All your bowls and all your kettles", "Shall be wood and clay no longer;", "But the bowls be changed to wampum,", "And the kettles shall be silver;", "They shall shine like shells of scarlet,", "Like the fire shall gleam and glimmer.", "\"'And the women shall no longer", "Bear the dreary doom of labor,", "But be changed to birds, and glisten", "With the beauty of the starlight,", "Painted with the dusky splendors", "Of the skies and clouds of evening!'", "\"What Osseo heard as whispers,", "What as words he comprehended,", "Was but music to the others,", "Music as of birds afar off,", "Of the whippoorwill afar off,", "Of the lonely Wawonaissa", "Singing in the darksome forest.", "\"Then the lodge began to tremble,", "Straight began to shake and tremble,", "And they felt it rising, rising,", "Slowly through the air ascending,", "From the darkness of the tree-tops", "Forth into the dewy starlight,", "Till it passed the topmost branches;", "And behold! the wooden dishes", "All were changed to shells of scarlet!", "And behold! the earthen kettles", "All were changed to bowls of silver!", "And the roof-poles of the wigwam", "Were as glittering rods of silver,", "And the roof of bark upon them", "As the shining shards of beetles.", "\"Then Osseo gazed around him,", "And he saw the nine fair sisters,", "All the sisters and their husbands,", "Changed to birds of various plumage.", "Some were jays and some were magpies,", "Others thrushes, others blackbirds;", "And they hopped, and sang, and twittered,", "Perked and fluttered all their feathers,", "Strutted in their shining plumage,", "And their tails like fans unfolded.", "\"Only Oweenee, the youngest,", "Was not changed, but sat in silence,", "Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly,", "Looking sadly at the others;", "Till Osseo, gazing upward,", "Gave another cry of anguish,", "Such a cry as he had uttered", "By the oak-tree in the forest.", "\"Then returned her youth and beauty,", "And her soiled and tattered garments", "Were transformed to robes of ermine,", "And her staff became a feather,", "Yes, a shining silver feather!", "\"And again the wigwam trembled,", "Swayed and rushed through airy currents,", "Through transparent cloud and vapor,", "And amid celestial splendors", "On the Evening Star alighted,", "As a snow-flake falls on snow-flake,", "As a leaf drops on a river,", "As the thistledown on water.", "\"Forth with cheerful words of welcome", "Came the father of Osseo,", "He with radiant locks of silver,", "He with eyes serene and tender.", "And he said: `My son, Osseo,", "Hang the cage of birds you bring there,", "Hang the cage with rods of silver,", "And the birds with glistening feathers,", "At the doorway of my wigwam.'", "\"At the door he hung the bird-cage,", "And they entered in and gladly", "Listened to Osseo's father,", "Ruler of the Star of Evening,", "As he said: `O my Osseo!", "I have had compassion on you,", "Given you back your youth and beauty,", "Into birds of various plumage", "Changed your sisters and their husbands;", "Changed them thus because they mocked you", "In the figure of the old man,", "In that aspect sad and wrinkled,", "Could not see your heart of passion,", "Could not see your youth immortal;", "Only Oweenee, the faithful,", "Saw your naked heart and loved you.", "\"`In the lodge that glimmers yonder,", "In the little star that twinkles", "Through the vapors, on the left hand,", "Lives the envious Evil Spirit,", "The Wabeno, the magician,", "Who transformed you to an old man.", "Take heed lest his beams fall on you,", "For the rays he darts around him", "Are the power of his enchantment,", "Are the arrows that he uses.'", "\"Many years, in peace and quiet,", "On the peaceful Star of Evening", "Dwelt Osseo with his father;", "Many years, in song and flutter,", "At the doorway of the wigwam,", "Hung the cage with rods of silver,", "And fair Oweenee, the faithful,", "Bore a son unto Osseo,", "With the beauty of his mother,", "With the courage of his father.", "\"And the boy grew up and prospered,", "And Osseo, to delight him,", "Made him little bows and arrows,", "Opened the great cage of silver,", "And let loose his aunts and uncles,", "All those birds with glossy feathers,", "For his little son to shoot at.", "\"Round and round they wheeled and darted,", "Filled the Evening Star with music,", "With their songs of joy and freedom", "Filled the Evening Star with splendor,", "With the fluttering of their plumage;", "Till the boy, the little hunter,", "Bent his bow and shot an arrow,", "Shot a swift and fatal arrow,", "And a bird, with shining feathers,", "At his feet fell wounded sorely.", "\"But, O wondrous transformation!", "`T was no bird he saw before him,", "`T was a beautiful young woman,", "With the arrow in her bosom!", "\"When her blood fell on the planet,", "On the sacred Star of Evening,", "Broken was the spell of magic,", "Powerless was the strange enchantment,", "And the youth, the fearless bowman,", "Suddenly felt himself descending,", "Held by unseen hands, but sinking", "Downward through the empty spaces,", "Downward through the clouds and vapors,", "Till he rested on an island,", "On an island, green and grassy,", "Yonder in the Big-Sea-Water.", "\"After him he saw descending", "All the birds with shining feathers,", "Fluttering, falling, wafted downward,", "Like the painted leaves of Autumn;", "And the lodge with poles of silver,", "With its roof like wings of beetles,", "Like the shining shards of beetles,", "By the winds of heaven uplifted,", "Slowly sank upon the island,", "Bringing back the good Osseo,", "Bringing Oweenee, the faithful.", "\"Then the birds, again transfigured,", "Reassumed the shape of mortals,", "Took their shape, but not their stature;", "They remained as Little People,", "Like the pygmies, the Puk-Wudjies,", "And on pleasant nights of Summer,", "When the Evening Star was shining,", "Hand in hand they danced together", "On the island's craggy headlands,", "On the sand-beach low and level.", "\"Still their glittering lodge is seen there,", "On the tranquil Summer evenings,", "And upon the shore the fisher", "Sometimes hears their happy voices,", "Sees them dancing in the starlight !\"", "When the story was completed,", "When the wondrous tale was ended,", "Looking round upon his listeners,", "Solemnly Iagoo added:", "\"There are great men, I have known such,", "Whom their people understand not,", "Whom they even make a jest of,", "Scoff and jeer at in derision.", "From the story of Osseo", "Let us learn the fate of jesters!\"", "All the wedding guests delighted", "Listened to the marvellous story,", "Listened laughing and applauding,", "And they whispered to each other:", "\"Does he mean himself, I wonder?", "And are we the aunts and uncles?\"", "Then again sang Chibiabos,", "Sang a song of love and longing,", "In those accents sweet and tender,", "In those tones of pensive sadness,", "Sang a maiden's lamentation", "For her lover, her Algonquin.", "\"When I think of my beloved,", "Ah me! think of my beloved,", "When my heart is thinking of him,", "O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!", "\"Ah me! when I parted from him,", "Round my neck he hung the wampum,", "As a pledge, the snow-white wampum,", "O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!", "\"`I will go with you, he whispered,", "Ah me! to your native country;", "Let me go with you, he whispered,", "O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!", "\"Far away, away, I answered,", "Very far away, I answered,", "Ah me! is my native country,", "O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!", "\"When I looked back to behold him,", "Where we parted, to behold him,", "After me he still was gazing,", "O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!", "\"By the tree he still was standing,", "By the fallen tree was standing,", "That had dropped into the water,", "O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!", "\"When I think of my beloved,", "Ah me! think of my beloved,", "When my heart is thinking of him,", "O my sweetheart, my Algonquin!\"", "Such was Hiawatha's Wedding,", "Such the dance of Pau-Puk-Keewis,", "Such the story of Iagoo,", "Such the songs of Chibiabos;", "Thus the wedding banquet ended,", "And the wedding guests departed,", "Leaving Hiawatha happy", "With the night and Minnehaha." ], "linecount": "375" }, { "title": "AUTUMN", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,", "With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,", "Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,", "And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!", "Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,", "Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand", "Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,", "Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!", "Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended", "So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;", "Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;", "Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;", "And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,", "Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "How strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves,", "Close by the street of this fair seaport town,", "Silent beside the never-silent waves,", "At rest in all this moving up and down!", "", "The trees are white with dust, that o'er their sleep", "Wave their broad curtains in the southwind's breath,", "While underneath these leafy tents they keep", "The long, mysterious Exodus of Death.", "", "And these sepulchral stones, so old and brown,", "That pave with level flags their burial-place,", "Seem like the tablets of the Law, thrown down", "And broken by Moses at the mountain's base.", "", "The very names recorded here are strange,", "Of foreign accent, and of different climes;", "Alvares and Rivera interchange", "With Abraham and Jacob of old times.", "", "\"Blessed be God! for he created Death!\"", "The mourner said, \"and Death is rest and peace!\"", "Then added, in the certainty of faith,", "\"And giveth Life that nevermore shall cease.\"", "", "Closed are the portals of their Synagogue,", "No Psalms of David now the silence break,", "No Rabbi reads the ancient Decalogue", "In the grand dialect the Prophets spake.", "", "Gone are the living, but the dead remain,", "And not neglected; for a hand unseen,", "Scattering its bounty, like a summer rain,", "Still keeps their graves and their remembrance green.", "", "How came they here? What burst of Christian hate,", "What persecution, merciless and blind,", "Drove o'er the sea -that desert desolate -", "These Ishmaels and Hagars of mankind?", "", "They lived in narrow streets and lanes obscure,", "Ghetto and Judenstrass, in mirk and mire;", "Taught in the school of patience to endure", "The life of anguish and the death of fire.", "", "All their lives long, with the unleavened bread", "And bitter herbs of exile and its fears,", "The wasting famine of the heart they fed,", "And slaked its thirst with marah of their tears.", "", "Anathema maranatha! was the cry", "That rang from town to town, from street to street:", "At every gate the accursed Mordecai", "Was mocked and jeered, and spurned by Christian feet.", "", "Pride and humiliation hand in hand", "Walked with them through the world where'er they went;", "Trampled and beaten were they as the sand,", "And yet unshaken as the continent.", "", "For in the background figures vague and vast", "Of patriarchs and of prophets rose sublime,", "And all the great traditions of the Past", "They saw reflected in the coming time.", "", "And thus forever with reverted look", "The mystic volume of the world they read,", "Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book,", "Till life became a Legend of the Dead.", "", "But ah! what once has been shall be no more!", "The groaning earth in travail and in pain", "Brings forth its races, but does not restore,", "And the dead nations never rise again." ], "linecount": "60" } ]