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Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882

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01. The Arrow and the Song
02. Chaucer
03. The Children's Hour
04. Excelsior
05. Hymn To The Night
06. The Rainy Day
07. Nature
08. Nuremberg
09. A Psalm of Life
10. Shakespeare
11. Snow-flakes
12. There Was a Little Girl
13. The Tide Rises
14. Fata Morgana
15. The Castle-Builder
16. The Sound of the Sea
17. Children
18. Saint Filomena (Florence Nightingale)
19. Daybreak
20. The Day is Done
21. The Secret of the Sea
22. The Landlord's Tale (Paul Revere's Ride)
23. The Village Blacksmith
24. Hiawatha's Childhood
25. The Wreck of the Hesperus
Links to longer poems

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01. The Arrow and the Song

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

02. Chaucer

An old man in a lodge within a park;
      The chamber walls depicted all around
      With portraitures of huntsman, hawk, and hound,
      And the hurt deer. He listeneth to the lark,
Whose song comes with the sunshine through the dark
      Of painted glass in leaden lattice bound;
      He listeneth and he laugheth at the sound,
      Then writeth in a book like any clerk.
He is the poet of the dawn, who wrote
      The Canterbury Tales, and his old age
      Made beautiful with song; and as I read
I hear the crowing cock, I hear the note
      Of lark and linnet, and from every page
      Rise odors of ploughed field or flowery mead.

03. The Children's Hour

Between the dark and the daylight,
      When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
      That is known as the Children's Hour.

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 into 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!

04. Excelsior

"Excelsior" is Latin for "higher." A falchion is a broad, slightly curved sword.

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
            Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
            Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,
            Excelsior!

"Try not the Pass!" the old man said;
"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!"
And loud that clarion voice replied,
            Excelsior!

"Oh stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast!"
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
            Excelsior!

"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"
This was the peasant's last Good-night,
A voice replied, far up the height,
            Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
            Excelsior!

A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
            Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell like a falling star,
            Excelsior!

05. Hymn To The Night

In a Greek tragedy written by Aeschylus, Orestes was in great trouble and prayed to the goddess Athena for peace.

I heard the trailing garments of the Night
      Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
      From the celestial walls!

I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
      Stoop o'er me from above;
The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
      As of the one I love.

I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
      The manifold, soft chimes,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night,
      Like some old poet's rhymes.

From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
      My spirit drank repose;
The fountain of perpetual peace flows there, --
      From those deep cisterns flows.

O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear
      What man has borne before!
Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,
      And they complain no more.

Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!
      Descend with broad-winged flight,
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,
      The best-beloved Night!

06. The Rainy Day

Longfellow added this note: "Written at the old home in Portland."

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.

07. Nature

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.

08. Nuremberg

Nuremberg is a city in the German state of Bavaria. It is the site of Nuremberg Castle, as well as many churches, some of which are named in the poem.

In the valley of the Pegnitz, where across broad meadow-lands
Rise the blue Franconian mountains, Nuremberg, the ancient, stands.

Quaint old town of toil and traffic, quaint old town of art and song,
Memories haunt thy pointed gables, like the rooks that round them throng:

Memories of the Middle Ages, when the emperors, rough and bold,
Had their dwelling in thy castle, time-defying, centuries old;

And thy brave and thrifty burghers boasted, in their uncouth rhyme,
That their great imperial city stretched its hand through every clime.

In the court-yard of the castle, bound with many an iron band,
Stands the mighty linden planted by Queen Cunigunde's hand;

On the square the oriel window, where in old heroic days
Sat the poet Melchior singing Kaiser Maximilian's praise.

Everywhere I see around me rise the wondrous world of Art:
Fountains wrought with richest sculpture standing in the common mart;

And above cathedral doorways saints and bishops carved in stone,
By a former age commissioned as apostles to our own.

In the church of sainted Sebald sleeps enshrined his holy dust,
And in bronze the Twelve Apostles guard from age to age their trust;

In the church of sainted Lawrence stands a pix of sculpture rare,
Like the foamy sheaf of fountains, rising through the painted air.

Here, when Art was still religion, with a simple, reverent heart,
Lived and labored Albrecht Dürer, the Evangelist of Art;

Hence in silence and in sorrow, toiling still with busy hand,
Like an emigrant he wandered, seeking for the Better Land.

Emigravit is the inscription on the tomb-stone where he lies;
Dead he is not, but departed, -- for the artist never dies.

Fairer seems the ancient city, and the sunshine seems more fair,
That he once has trod its pavement, that he once has breathed its air!

Through these streets so broad and stately, these obscure and dismal lanes,
Walked of yore the Mastersingers, chanting rude poetic strains.

From remote and sunless suburbs came they to the friendly guild,
Building nests in Fame's great temple, as in spouts the swallows build.

As the weaver plied the shuttle, wove he too the mystic rhyme,
And the smith his iron measures hammered to the anvil's chime;

Thanking God, whose boundless wisdom makes the flowers of poesy bloom
In the forge's dust and cinders, in the tissues of the loom.

Here Hans Sachs, the cobbler-poet, laureate of the gentle craft,
Wisest of the Twelve Wise Masters, in huge folios sang and laughed.

But his house is now an ale-house, with a nicely sanded floor,
And a garland in the window, and his face above the door;

Painted by some humble artist, as in Adam Puschman's song,
As the old man gray and dove-like, with his great beard white and long.

And at night the swart mechanic comes to drown his cark and care,
Quaffing ale from pewter tankards, in the master's antique chair.

Vanished is the ancient splendor, and before my dreamy eye
Wave these mingled shapes and figures, like a faded tapestry.

Not thy Councils, not thy Kaisers, win for thee the world's regard;
But thy painter, Albrecht Dürer, and Hans Sachs thy cobbler bard.

Thus, O Nuremberg, a wanderer from a region far away,
As he paced thy streets and court-yards, sang in thought his careless lay:

Gathering from the pavement's crevice, as a floweret of the soil,
The nobility of labor, -- the long pedigree of toil.

09. A Psalm of Life

Longfellow wrote this not long after the death of his first wife, and it became one of his most famous poems.

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.

10. Shakespeare

In classical mythology, "Musagetes" is a name for the god Apollo, referring to his role as protector and companion of the nine Muses, the goddesses who ruled over the arts and sciences. Longfellow suggests that the Muses must have loved Shakespeare as much as they did Apollo.

A vision as of crowded city streets,
With human life in endless overflow;
Thunder of thoroughfares; trumpets that blow
To battle; clamor, in obscure retreats,
Of sailors landed from their anchored fleets;
Tolling of bells in turrets, and below
Voices of children, and bright flowers that throw
O'er garden-walls their intermingled sweets!
This vision comes to me when I unfold
The volume of the Poet paramount,
Whom all the Muses loved, not one alone; --
Into his hands they put the lyre of gold,
And, crowned with sacred laurel at their fount,
Placed him as Musagetes on their throne.

11. Snow-flakes

Out of the bosom of the Air,
      Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
      Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
            Silent, and soft, and slow
            Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take
      Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
      In the white countenance confession,
            The troubled sky reveals
            The grief it feels.

This is the poem of the air,
      Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
      Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
            Now whispered and revealed
            To wood and field.

12. There Was a Little Girl

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
      Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
      But when she was bad she was horrid.

13. The Tide Rises

The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
      And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
      And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
      And the tide rises, the tide falls.

14. Fata Morgana

O sweet illusions of song
      That tempt me everywhere,
In the lonely fields, and the throng
      Of the crowded thoroughfare!

I approach and ye vanish away,
      I grasp you, and ye are gone;
But ever by night and by day,
      The melody soundeth on.

As the weary traveller sees
      In desert or prairie vast,
Blue lakes, overhung with trees
      That a pleasant shadow cast;

Fair towns with turrets high,
      And shining roofs of gold,
That vanish as he draws nigh,
      Like mists together rolled --

So I wander and wander along,
      And forever before me gleams
The shining city of song,
      In the beautiful land of dreams.

But when I would enter the gate
      Of that golden atmosphere,
It is gone, and I wonder and wait
      For the vision to reappear.

15. The Castle-Builder (Watch a version of this sung by Lauren Bernofsky on YouTube)

A gentle boy, with soft and silken locks,
      A dreamy boy, with brown and tender eyes,
A castle-builder, with his wooden blocks,
      And towers that touch imaginary skies.

A fearless rider on his father's knee,
      An eager listener unto stories told
At the Round Table of the nursery,
      Of heroes and adventures manifold.

There will be other towers for thee to build;
      There will be other steeds for thee to ride;
There will be other legends, and all filled
      With greater marvels and more glorified.

Build on, and make thy castles high and fair,
      Rising and reaching upward to the skies;
Listen to voices in the upper air,
      Nor lose thy simple faith in mysteries.

16. The Sound of the Sea

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 foreshadowing and foreseeing
      Of things beyond our reason or control.

17. Children

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 the 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
      Then reaches the trunks below.

Come to me, O ye children!
      And whisper in my ear
What the birds and wings 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.

18. Saint Filomena (Florence Nightingale)

Florence Nightingale is known as the founder of modern nursing. She became famous for her care for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War, and she is often referred to as the Lady with the Lamp.

Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought,
      Our hearts, in glad surprise,
      To higher levels rise.

The tidal wave of deeper souls
Into our inmost being rolls,
      And lifts us unawares
      Out of all meaner cares.

Honor to those whose words or deeds
Thus help us in our daily needs,
      And by their overflow
      Raise us from what is low.

Thus thought I, as by night I read
Of the great army of the dead,
      The trenches cold and damp,
      The starved and frozen camp,--

The wounded from the battle-plain,
In dreary hospitals of pain,
      The cheerless corridors,
      The cold and stony floors.

Lo! in that house of misery
A lady with a lamp I see
      Pass through the glimmering gloom,
      And flit from room to room.

And slow, as in a dream of bliss,
The speechless sufferer turns to kiss
      Her shadow, as it falls
      Upon the darkening walls.

As if a door in heaven should be
Opened and then closed suddenly,
      The vision came and went,
      The light shone and was spent.

On England's annals, through the long
Hereafter of her speech and song,
      That light its rays shall cast
      From portals of the past.

A Lady with a Lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
      A noble type of good,
      Heroic womanhood.

Nor even shall be wanting here
The palm, the lily, and the spear,
      The symbols that of yore
      Saint Filomena bore.

19. Daybreak

A wind came up out of the sea,
And said, "O mists, make room for me."

It hailed the ships and cried, "Sail on,
Ye mariners, the night is gone."

And hurried landward far away,
Crying "Awake! it is the day."

It said unto the forest, "Shout!
Hang all your leafy banners out!"

It touched the wood-bird's folded wing,
And said, "O bird, awake and sing."

And o'er the farms, "O chanticleer,
Your clarion blow; the day is near."

It whispered to the fields of corn,
"Bow down, and hail the coming morn."

It shouted through the belfry-tower,
"Awake, O bell! proclaim the hour."

It crossed the churchyard with a sigh,
And said, "Not yet! In quiet lie."

20. The Day is Done

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.

I see the lights of the village
      Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me,
      That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
      That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
      As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
      Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
      And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
      Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
      Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,
      Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;
      And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,
      Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
      Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
      And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
      Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have a power to quiet
      The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
      That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
      The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
      The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music,
      And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
      And as silently steal away.

21. The Secret of the Sea

Count Arnaldos is the subject of a famous Spanish ballad (Romance del Conde Arnaldos), which Longfellow describes here.

Ah! what pleasant visions haunt me
      As I gaze upon the sea!
All the old romantic legends,
      All my dreams, come back to me.

Sails of silk and ropes of sandal,
      Such as gleam in ancient lore;
And the singing of the sailors,
      And the answer from the shore!

Most of all, the Spanish ballad
      Haunts me oft, and tarries long,
Of the noble Count Arnaldos
      And the sailor's mystic song.

Like the long waves on a sea-beach,
      Where the sand as silver shines,
With a soft, monotonous cadence,
      Flow its unrhymed lyric lines:--

Telling how the Count Arnaldos,
      With his hawk upon his hand,
Saw a fair and stately galley,
      Steering onward to the land;--

How he heard the ancient helmsman
      Chant a song so wild and clear,
That the sailing sea-bird slowly
      Poised upon the mast to hear,

Till his soul was full of longing,
      And he cried, with impulse strong, --
"Helmsman! for the love of heaven,
      Teach me, too, that wondrous song!"

"Wouldst thou," -- so the helmsman answered,
      "Learn the secret of the sea?
Only those who brave its dangers
      Comprehend its mystery!"

In each sail that skims the horizon,
      In each landward-blowing breeze,
I behold that stately galley,
      Hear those mournful melodies;

Till my soul is full of longing
      For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
      Sends a thrilling pulse through me.

22. The Landlord's Tale (Paul Revere's Ride)

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,
Up 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 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, blank 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 meadows 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 farm-yard wall,
Chasing the red-coats 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 forevermore!
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.

23. The Village Blacksmith

Under a spreading chestnut-tree
      The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
      With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
      Are strong as iron bands.

His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
      His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
      He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
      For he owes not any man.

Week in, week out, from morn till night,
      You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
      With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
      When the evening sun is low.

And children coming home from school
      Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
      And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
      Like chaff from a threshing-floor.

He goes on Sunday to the church,
      And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
      He hears his daughter's voice,
Singing in the village choir,
      And it makes his heart rejoice.

It sounds to him like her mother's voice,
      Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
      How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
      A tear out of his eyes.

Toiling,---rejoicing,---sorrowing,
      Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
      Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
      Has earned a night's repose.

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
      For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
      Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
      Each burning deed and thought.

24. Hiawatha's Childhood (audio version on YouTube

This poem is one section of Longfellow's epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha," published in 1855. He based his poem on Native American legends, particularly those he learned from a friend who was an Ojibwe chief. He had planned on calling his hero Manabozho (or Nanabozho), a trickster figure; but he changed the name to Hiawatha, as one of his other sources incorrectly said that it was another name for the same character. The story that Longfellow ended up telling came as much from his imagination as it did from his source material; for instance, Hiawatha does not act much like a trickster.

Not all of Longfellow's critics liked the poem when it first appeared, but many did. One of them, John Neal, called it "a fountain overflowing night and day with natural rhythm." English novelist George Eliot called "The Song of Hiawatha," along with Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter," the "two most . . . masterly productions in American literature." Many artists and composers have since created works inspired by Hiawatha.

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!

25. The Wreck of the Hesperus (Online book version with nice illustrations)

This poem is not based on one actual event. Longfellow seems to have combined the name Hesperus with details of the sinking of another ship called the Favorite, which was lost along with nineteen other ships during a terrible blizzard in 1839.

It was the schooner Hesperus,
      That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
      To bear him company.

Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,
      Her cheeks like the dawn of day,
And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,
      That ope in the month of May.

The skipper he stood beside the helm,
      His pipe was in his mouth,
And he watched how the veering flaw did blow
      The smoke now West, now South.

Then up and spake an old Sailòr,
      Had sailed to the Spanish Main,
"I pray thee, put into yonder port,
      For I fear a hurricane.

"Last night, the moon had a golden ring,
      And to-night no moon we see!"
The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,
      And a scornful laugh laughed he.

Colder and louder blew the wind,
      A gale from the Northeast,
The snow fell hissing in the brine,
      And the billows frothed like yeast.

Down came the storm, and smote amain
      The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
      Then leaped her cable's length.

"Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,
      And do not tremble so;
For I can weather the roughest gale
      That ever wind did blow."

He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat
      Against the stinging blast;
He cut a rope from a broken spar,
      And bound her to the mast.

"O father! I hear the church-bells ring,
      Oh say, what may it be?"
"'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!" --
      And he steered for the open sea.

"O father! I hear the sound of guns,
      Oh say, what may it be?"
"Some ship in distress, that cannot live
      In such an angry sea!"

"O father! I see a gleaming light,
      Oh say, what may it be?"
But the father answered never a word,
      A frozen corpse was he.

Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,
      With his face turned to the skies,
The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
      On his fixed and glassy eyes.

Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
      That savèd she might be;
And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave
      On the Lake of Galilee.

And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
      Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
      Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe.

And ever the fitful gusts between
      A sound came from the land;
It was the sound of the trampling surf
      On the rocks and the hard sea-sand.

The breakers were right beneath her bows,
      She drifted a dreary wreck,
And a whooping billow swept the crew
      Like icicles from her deck.

She struck where the white and fleecy waves
      Looked soft as carded wool,
But the cruel rocks, they gored her side
      Like the horns of an angry bull.

Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
      With the masts went by the board;
Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,
      Ho! ho! the breakers roared!

At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
      A fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair,
      Lashed close to a drifting mast.

The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
      The salt tears in her eyes;
And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,
      On the billows fall and rise.

Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
      In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
      On the reef of Norman's Woe!

These long poems are also highly recommended, but were too long to include here:

Evangeline (some notes about Evangeline)
Courtship of Miles Standish: here or here
Complete text of Hiawatha

Complete Works of Longfellow, including Hiawatha, Evangeline, Courtship of Miles Standish and other poems

Thanks to Bonnie Buckingham for fixing this page and finding links to audio and book versions.

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