American poet (1807-1882)
I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
The manifold, soft charms,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night,
Like some old poet's rhymes.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Hymn to the Night"
In old age our bodies are worn-out instruments, on which the soul tries in vain to play the melodies of youth. But because the instrument has lost its strings, or is out of tune, it does not follow that the musician has lost his skill.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
I am more afraid of deserving criticism than of receiving it.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Kavanagh: A Tale
Each day is a branch of the Tree of Life laden heavily with fruit. If we lie down lazily beneath it, we may starve; but if we shake the branches, some of the fruit will fall for us.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
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.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadia
More hearts are breaking in this world of ours
Than one would say. In distant villages
And solitudes remote, where winds have wafted
The barbed seeds of love, or birds of passage
Scattered them in their flight, do they take root,
And grow in silence, and in silence perish.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
The Spanish Student
O holy Night! from these I learn to bear
What man has borne before!
Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,
And they complain no more.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Hymn to the Night"
So many ghosts, and forms of fright,
Have started from their graves to-night,
They have driven sleep from mine eyes away;
I will go down to the chapel and pray.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
The Golden Legend
It is curious to note the old sea-margins of human thought! Each subsiding century reveals some new mystery; we build where monsters used to hide themselves.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Kavanagh", Prose Works
There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion
That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble
Drops some careless word, it overflows and its secret,
Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Courtship of Miles Standish"
Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Evangeline
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.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Morituri Salutamus"
I do not know; nor will I vainly question
Those pages of the mystic book which hold
The story still untold,
But without rash conjecture or suggestion
Turn its last leaves in reverence and good heed,
Until "The End" I read.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Palingenesis"
Fame grows like a tree if it have the principle of growth in it; the accumulated dews of ages freshen its leaves.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
God's voice was not in the earthquake,
Not in the fire, nor the storm, but it was in the whispering breezes.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Children of the Lord's Supper"
I do not believe anyone can be perfectly well, who has a brain and a heart.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
letter to Charles Sumner, September 17, 1842
Ah me! what wonder-working, occult science
Can from the ashes in our hearts once more
The rose of youth restore?
What craft of alchemy can bid defiance
To time and change, and for a single hour
Renew this phantom-flower?
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Palingenesis"
A great sorrow, like a mariner's quadrant, brings the sun at noon down to the horizon, and we learn where we are on the sea of life.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Day is Done"
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!
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Christmas Bells"