Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807-1882)
A Psalm Of Life. What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To
The Psalmist
1 Tell me not, in mournful
numbers,
2 Life is
but an empty dream! --
3 For the soul is dead that
slumbers,
4 And things
are not what they seem.
5 Life is real! Life is
earnest!
6 And the
grave is not its goal;
7 Dust thou art, to dust
returnest,
8 Was not
spoken of the soul.
9 Not enjoyment, and not
sorrow,
10 Is our destined end
or way;
11 But to act, that each to-morrow
12 Find us farther
than to-day.
13 Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
14 And our hearts,
though stout and brave,
15 Still, like muffled drums, are
beating
16 Funeral marches to
the grave.
17 In the world's broad field of
battle,
18 In the bivouac of
Life,
19 Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
20 Be a hero in the
strife!
21 Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
22 Let the dead Past
bury its dead!
23 Act, -- act in the living Present!
24 Heart within, and
God o'erhead!
25 Lives of great men all remind us
26 We can make our
lives sublime,
27 And, departing, leave behind us
28 Footprints on the
sands of time;
29 Footprints, that perhaps another,
30 Sailing o'er life's
solemn main,
31 A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
32 Seeing, shall take
heart again.
33 Let us, then, be up and doing,
34 With a heart for
any fate;
35 Still achieving, still pursuing,
36 Learn to labor and
to wait.
Seaweed
1 When descends on the
Atlantic
2 The
gigantic
3 Storm-wind of the equinox,
4 Landward in his wrath he
scourges
5 The
toiling surges,
6 Laden with seaweed from the
rocks:
7 From Bermuda's reefs; from
edges
8 Of
sunken ledges,
9 In some far-off, bright
Azore;
10 From Bahama, and the dashing,
11
Silver-flashing
12 Surges of San Salvador;
13 From the tumbling surf, that buries
14 The Orkneyan
skerries,
15 Answering the hoarse Hebrides;
16 And from wrecks of ships, and
drifting
17 Spars,
uplifting
18 On the desolate, rainy seas; --
19 Ever drifting, drifting, drifting
20 On the
shifting
21 Currents of the restless main;
22 Till in sheltered coves, and reaches
23 Of sandy
beaches,
24 All have found repose again.
25 So when storms of wild emotion
26 Strike the
ocean
27 Of the poet's soul, erelong
28 From each cave and rocky fastness,
29 In its
vastness,
30 Floats some fragment of a song:
31 From the far-off isles enchanted,
32 Heaven has
planted
33 With the golden fruit of Truth;
34 From the flashing surf, whose vision
35 Gleams
Elysian
36 In the tropic clime of Youth;
37 From the strong Will, and the
Endeavor
38 That forever
39 Wrestle with the tides of Fate;
40 From the wreck of Hopes
far-scattered,
41
Tempest-shattered,
42 Floating waste and desolate; --
43 Ever drifting, drifting, drifting
44 On the
shifting
45 Currents of the restless heart;
46 Till at length in books recorded,
47 They, like
hoarded
48 Household words, no more depart.
Shakespeare
1 A vision as of crowded city
streets,
2 With human
life in endless overflow;
3 Thunder of
thoroughfares; trumpets that blow
4 To battle;
clamor, in obscure retreats,
5 Of sailors landed from their
anchored fleets;
6 Tolling of
bells in turrets, and below
7 Voices of
children, and bright flowers that throw
8 O'er
garden-walls their intermingled sweets!
9 This vision comes to me when I
unfold
10 The volume of the
Poet paramount,
11 Whom all the Muses
loved, not one alone; --
12 Into his hands they put the lyre of
gold,
13 And, crowned with
sacred laurel at their fount,
14 Placed him as
Musagetes on their throne.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
1 Southward with fleet of ice
2 Sailed the corsair Death;
3 Wild and gast blew the
blast,
4 And the east-wind was his
breath.
5 His lordly ships of ice
6 Glisten in the sun;
7 On each side, like pennons
wide,
8 Flashing crystal streamlets
run.
9 His sails of white
sea-mist
10 Dripped with silver rain;
11 But where he passed there were cast
12 Leaden shadows o'er the main.
13 Eastward from Campobello
14 Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed;
15 Three days or more seaward he bore,
16 Then, alas! the land-wind failed.
17 Alas! the land-wind failed,
18 And ice-cold grew the night;
19 And nevermore, on sea or shore,
20 Should Sir Humphrey see the light.
21 He sat upon the deck,
22 The Book was in his hand;
23 "Do not fear! Heaven is as near,"
24 He said, "by water as by land!"
25 In the first watch of the night,
26 Without a signal's sound,
27 Out of the sea, mysteriously,
28 The fleet of Death rose all around.
29 The moon and the evening star
30 Were hanging in the shrouds;
31 Every mast, as it passed,
32 Seemed to rake the passing clouds.
33 They grappled with their prize,
34 At midnight black and cold!
35 As of a rock was the shock;
36 Heavily the ground-swell rolled.
37 Southward through day and dark,
38 They drift in cold embrace,
39 With mist and rain, o'er the open
main;
40 Yet there seems no change of place.
41 Southward, forever southward,
42 They drift through dark and day;
43 And like a dream, in the Gulf-Stream
44 Sinking, vanish all away.
The Skeleton In Armor
1 "Speak! speak! thou fearful
guest!
2 Who, with thy hollow breast
3 Still in rude armor drest,
4 Comest to
daunt me!
5 Wrapt not in Eastern balms,
6 But with thy fleshless palms
7 Stretched, as if asking
alms,
8 Why dost
thou haunt me?"
9 Then, from those cavernous
eyes
10 Pale flashes seemed to rise,
11 As when the Northern skies
12 Gleam in
December;
13 And, like the water's flow
14 Under December's snow,
15 Came a dull voice of woe
16 From the heart's
chamber.
17 "I was a Viking old!
18 My deeds, though manifold,
19 No Skald in song has told,
20 No Saga taught
thee!
21 Take heed, that in thy verse
22 Thou dost the tale rehearse,
23 Else dread a dead man's curse;
24 For this I sought
thee.
25 "Far in the Northern Land,
26 By the wild Baltic's strand,
27 I, with my childish hand,
28 Tamed the
gerfalcon;
29 And, with my skates fast-bound,
30 Skimmed the half-frozen Sound,
31 That the poor whimpering hound
32 Trembled to walk
on.
33 "Oft to his frozen lair
34 Tracked I the grisly bear,
35 While from my path the hare
36 Fled like a
shadow;
37 Oft through the forest dark
38 Followed the were-wolf's bark,
39 Until the soaring lark
40 Sang from the
meadow.
41 "But when I older grew,
42 Joining a corsair's crew,
43 O'er the dark sea I flew
44 With the
marauders.
45 Wild was the life we led;
46 Many the souls that sped,
47 Many the hearts that bled,
48 By our stern
orders.
49 "Many a wassail-bout
50 Wore the long Winter out;
51 Often our midnight shout
52 Set the cocks
crowing,
53 As we the Berserk's tale
54 Measured in cups of ale,
55 Draining the oaken pail,
56 Filled to
o'erflowing.
57 "Once as I told in glee
58 Tales of the stormy sea,
59 Soft eyes did gaze on me,
60 Burning yet
tender;
61 And as the white stars shine
62 On the dark Norway pine,
63 On that dark heart of mine
64 Fell their soft
splendor.
65 "I wooed the blue-eyed maid,
66 Yielding, yet half afraid,
67 And in the forest's shade
68 Our vows were
plighted.
69 Under its loosened vest
70 Fluttered her little breast,
71 Like birds within their nest
72 By the hawk
frighted.
73 "Bright in her father's hall
74 Shields gleamed upon the wall,
75 Loud sang the minstrels all,
76 Chanting his
glory;
77 When of old Hildebrand
78 I asked his daughter's hand,
79 Mute did the minstrels stand
80 To hear my
story.
81 "While the brown ale he quaffed,
82 Loud then the champion laughed,
83 And as the wind-gusts waft
84 The sea-foam
brightly,
85 So the loud laugh of scorn,
86 Out of those lips unshorn,
87 From the deep drinking-horn
88 Blew the foam
lightly.
89 "She was a Prince's child,
90 I but a Viking wild,
91 And though she blushed and smiled,
92 I was
discarded!
93 Should not the dove so white
94 Follow the sea-mew's flight,
95 Why did they leave that night
96 Her nest
unguarded?
97 "Scarce had I put to sea,
98 Bearing the maid with me,
99 Fairest of all was she
100 Among the
Norsemen!
101 When on the white sea-strand,
102 Waving his armed hand,
103 Saw we old Hildebrand,
104 With twenty
horsemen.
105 "Then launched they to the blast,
106 Bent like a reed each mast,
107 Yet we were gaining fast,
108 When the wind
failed us;
109 And with a sudden flaw
110 Came round the gusty Skaw,
111 So that our foe we saw
112 Laugh as he hailed
us.
113 "And as to catch the gale
114 Round veered the flapping sail,
115 'Death!' was the helmsman's hail,
116 'Death without
quarter!'
117 Mid-ships with iron keel
118 Struck we her ribs of steel;
119 Down her black hulk did reel
120 Through the black
water!
121 "As with his wings aslant,
122 Sails the fierce cormorant,
123 Seeking some rocky haunt,
124 With his prey
laden, --
125 So toward the open main,
126 Beating to sea again,
127 Through the wild hurricane,
128 Bore I the
maiden.
129 "Three weeks we westward bore,
130 And when the storm was o'er,
131 Cloud-like we saw the shore
132 Stretching to
leeward;
133 There for my lady's bower
134 Built I the lofty tower,
135 Which, to this very hour,
136 Stands looking seaward.
137 "There lived we many years;
138 Time dried the maiden's tears;
139 She had forgot her fears,
140 She was a
mother;
141 Death closed her mild blue eyes,
142 Under that tower she lies;
143 Ne'er shall the sun arise
144 On such
another!
145 "Still grew my bosom then,
146 Still as a stagnant fen!
147 Hateful to me were men,
148 The sunlight
hateful!
149 In the vast forest here,
150 Clad in my warlike gear,
151 Fell I upon my spear,
152 Oh, death was
grateful!
153 "Thus, seamed with many scars,
154 Bursting these prison bars,
155 Up to its native stars
156 My soul
ascended!
157 There from the flowing bowl
158 Deep drinks the warrior's soul,
159 Skoal! to the Northland! skoal!"
160 Thus the tale
ended.
Snow Flakes
1 Out of the bosom of the Air,
2 Out of the
cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
3 Over the woodlands brown and
bare,
4 Over the
harvest-fields forsaken,
5
Silent,
and soft, and slow
6
Descends
the snow.
7 Even as our cloudy fancies
take
8 Suddenly
shape in some divine expression,
9 Even as the troubled heart doth
make
10 In the white
countenance confession,
11
The troubled sky reveals
12
The grief it feels.
13 This is the poem of the air,
14 Slowly in silent
syllables recorded;
15 This is the secret of despair,
16 Long in its cloudy
bosom hoarded,
17
Now whispered and revealed
18
To wood and field.
The Tide Rises. The Tide Falls
1 The tide rises, the tide
falls,
2 The twilight darkens, the curlew
calls;
3 Along the sea-sands damp and
brown
4 The traveller hastens toward the
town,
5 And the
tide rises, the tide falls.
6 Darkness settles on roofs and
walls,
7 But the sea, the sea in the
darkness calls;
8 The little waves, with their
soft, white hands,
9 Efface the footprints in the
sands,
10 And the tide rises,
the tide falls.
11 The morning breaks; the steeds in their
stalls
12 Stamp and neigh, as the hostler
calls;
13 The day returns, but nevermore
14 Returns the traveller to the shore,
15 And the tide rises,
the tide falls.
Ultima Thule: Dedication to G. W. G.
1 With favoring winds, o'er sunlit
seas,
2 We sailed for the
Hesperides,
3 The land where golden apples
grow;
4 But that, ah! that was long
ago.
5 How far, since then, the ocean
streams
6 Have swept us from that land of
dreams,
7 That land of fiction and of
truth,
8 The lost Atlantis of our
youth!
9 Whither, ah, whither? Are not
these
10 The tempest-haunted Orcades,
11 Where sea-gulls scream, and breakers
roar,
12 And wreck and sea-weed line the
shore?
13 Ultima Thule! Utmost Isle!
14 Here in thy harbors for a while
15 We lower our sails; a while we rest
16 From the unending, endless quest.
The Witnesses
1 In Ocean's wide domains,
2 Half
buried in the sands,
3 Lie skeletons in chains,
4 With
shackled feet and hands.
5 Beyond the fall of dews,
6 Deeper
than plummet lies,
7 Float ships, with all their
crews,
8 No more to
sink nor rise.
9 There the black Slave-ship
swims,
10 Freighted with human
forms,
11 Whose fettered, fleshless limbs
12 Are not the sport of
storms.
13 These are the bones of Slaves;
14 They gleam from the
abyss;
15 They cry, from yawning waves,
16 "We are the
Witnesses!"
17 Within Earth's wide domains
18 Are markets for
men's lives;
19 Their necks are galled with chains,
20 Their wrists are
cramped with gyves.
21 Dead bodies, that the kite
22 In deserts makes
its prey;
23 Murders, that with affright
24 Scare school-boys
from their play!
25 All evil thoughts and deeds;
26 Anger, and lust,
and pride;
27 The foulest, rankest weeds,
28 That choke Life's
groaning tide!
29 These are the woes of Slaves;
30 They glare from the
abyss;
31 They cry, from unknown graves,
32 "We are the
Witnesses!"
The Wreck of the Hesperus
1 It was the schooner
Hesperus,
2 That
sailed the wintry sea;
3 And the skipper had taken his
little daughtèr,
4 To bear
him company.
5 Blue were her eyes as the
fairy-flax,
6 Her
cheeks like the dawn of day,
7 And her bosom white as the
hawthorn buds,
8 That ope
in the month of May.
9 The skipper he stood beside the
helm,
10 His pipe was in his
mouth,
11 And he watched how the veering flaw did
blow
12 The smoke now West,
now South.
13 Then up and spake an old
Sailòr,
14 Had sailed to the
Spanish Main,
15 "I pray thee, put into yonder port,
16 For I fear a
hurricane.
17 "Last night, the moon had a golden
ring,
18 And to-night no
moon we see!"
19 The skipper, he blew a whiff from his
pipe,
20 And a scornful
laugh laughed he.
21 Colder and louder blew the wind,
22 A gale from the
Northeast,
23 The snow fell hissing in the brine,
24 And the billows
frothed like yeast.
25 Down came the storm, and smote amain
26 The vessel in its
strength;
27 She shuddered and paused, like a frighted
steed,
28 Then leaped her
cable's length.
29 "Come hither! come hither! my little
daughtèr,
30 And do not tremble
so;
31 For I can weather the roughest gale
32 That ever wind did
blow."
33 He wrapped her warm in his seaman's
coat
34 Against the
stinging blast;
35 He cut a rope from a broken spar,
36 And bound her to
the mast.
37 "O father! I hear the church-bells
ring,
38 Oh say, what may it
be?"
39 "'T is a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!"
--
40 And he steered for
the open sea.
41 "O father! I hear the sound of guns,
42 Oh say, what may it
be?"
43 "Some ship in distress, that cannot
live
44 In such an angry
sea!"
45 "O father! I see a gleaming light,
46 Oh say, what may it
be?"
47 But the father answered never a word,
48 A frozen corpse was
he.
49 Lashed to the helm, all stiff and
stark,
50 With his face
turned to the skies,
51 The lantern gleamed through the gleaming
snow
52 On his fixed and
glassy eyes.
53 Then the maiden clasped her hands and
prayed
54 That savèd
she might be;
55 And she thought of Christ, who stilled the
wave
56 On the Lake of
Galilee.
57 And fast through the midnight dark and
drear,
58 Through the
whistling sleet and snow,
59 Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel
swept
60 Tow'rds the reef of
Norman's Woe.
61 And ever the fitful gusts between
62 A sound came from
the land;
63 It was the sound of the trampling
surf
64 On the rocks and
the hard sea-sand.
65 The breakers were right beneath her
bows,
66 She drifted a
dreary wreck,
67 And a whooping billow swept the crew
68 Like icicles from
her deck.
69 She struck where the white and fleecy
waves
70 Looked soft as
carded wool,
71 But the cruel rocks, they gored her
side
72 Like the horns of
an angry bull.
73 Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in
ice,
74 With the masts went
by the board;
75 Like a vessel of glass, she stove and
sank,
76 Ho! ho! the
breakers roared!
77 At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
78 A fisherman stood
aghast,
79 To see the form of a maiden fair,
80 Lashed close to a
drifting mast.
81 The salt sea was frozen on her
breast,
82 The salt tears in
her eyes;
83 And he saw her hair, like the brown
sea-weed,
84 On the billows fall
and rise.
85 Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
86 In the midnight and
the snow!
87 Christ save us all from a death like
this,
88 On the reef of
Norman's Woe!
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