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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Quotes
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England.

Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, which was then still part of Massachusetts. He studied at Bowdoin College and became a professor at Bowdoin and later at Harvard College after spending time in Europe. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night and Ballads and Other Poems . He retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, and he lived the remainder of his life in the Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first wife Mary Potter died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife Frances Appleton died in 1861 after sustaining burns when her dress caught fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on translating works from foreign languages. He died in 1882.

Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized by some, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses. Wikipedia  

✵ 27. February 1807 – 24. March 1882   •   Other names Генри Уодсворт Лонгфелло, Longfello Genri Uodsuort
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: 202   quotes 24   likes

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Quotes

“When we reflect that all the aspects of Nature, all the emotions of the soul, and all the events of life, have been the subjects of poetry for hundreds and thousands of years, we can hardly wonder that there should be so many resemblances and coincidences of expression among poets, but rather that they are not more numerous and more striking.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Table-Talk (1857)

Life , Soul , Nature

“Into a world unknown,—the corner-stone of a nation.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Courtship of Miles Standish

Part V; referring to Plymouth Rock
The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858)

World

“Chorus of the Eumenides: …
With useless endeavour
Forever, forever,
Is Sisyphus rolling
His stone up the mountain!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Masque of Pandora and Other Poems (1875)

Mountain

“Books are sepulchres of thought.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Wind over the Chimney, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Books

“And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Tales of a Wayside Inn

Pt. I, The Landlord's Tale: Paul Revere's Ride, st. 8.
Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863-1874)

Fate , Light , Night

“Thy fate is the common fate of all;
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Rainy Day

"The Rainy Day", Bentley's Miscellany ( December 1841 http://books.google.com/books?id=pW8AAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Thy+fate+is+the+common+fate+of+all+Into+each+life+some+rain+must+fall+some+days+must+be+dark+and+dreary%22&pg=PA626#v=onepage).

Life , Fate

“Thus, seamed with many scars
Bursting these prison bars,
Up to its native stars
My soul ascended!
There from the flowing bowl
Deep drinks the warrior's soul,
Skoal! to the Northland! skoal!
—Thus the tale ended.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Skeleton in Armor, st. 20 (1841).

Soul , Star , Drink

“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!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

St. 13.
Morituri Salutamus http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/longfellow/19229 (1875)

Death

“Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution,
She lives whom we call dead.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Resignation

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Resignation

Dead

“Standing, with reluctant feet,
Where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood and childhood fleet!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Maidenhood http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/longfellow/12212, st. 3 (1842).

Childhood

“We often excuse our own want of philanthropy by giving the name of fanaticism to the more ardent zeal of others.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Table-Talk (1857)

“Thus departed Hiawatha,
Hiawatha the Beloved,
In the glory of the sunset,
In the purple mists of evening,
To the regions of the home-wind,
Of the Northwest-Wind, Keewaydin,
To the Islands of the Blessed,
To the Kingdom of Ponemah,
To the Land of the Hereafter!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. XXII, Hiawatha's Departure, st. 29.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

Home

“And as she looked around, she saw how Death the consoler,
Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it forever.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

Part II, section 5.
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847)

Death , Heart

“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.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life

St. 2.
A Psalm of Life (1839)

Life , Art , Soul

“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!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Building of the Ship

Source: The Building of the Ship (1849), Lines 396-399.

Fear , Faith , Hope , Tear

“I feel a kind of reverence for the first books of young authors. There is so much aspiration in them, so much audacious hope and trembling fear, so much of the heart's history, that all errors and short-comings are for a while lost sight of in the amiable self-assertion of youth.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Table-Talk (1857)

Books , Youth , Fear , Hope

“God sent his Singers upon earth
With songs of sadness and of mirth,
That they might touch the hearts of men,
And bring them back to heaven again.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Singers

The Singers, st. 1 (1849).

Men , God , Sadness , Heart

“But the great Master said, "I see
No best in kind, but in degree;
I gave a various gift to each,
To charm, to strengthen, and to teach.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Singers

The Singers, st. 6.

“O holy trust! O endless sense of rest!
Like the beloved John
To lay his head upon the Saviour's breast,
And thus to journey on!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Seaside and the Fireside

"Hymn, For my Brother's Ordination", The Seaside and the Fireside (1850).

Sense

“Doubtless criticism was originally benignant, pointing out the beauties of a work, rather than its defects. The passions of men have made it malignant, as the bad heart of Procrustes turned the bed, the symbol of repose, into an instrument of torture.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Table-Talk (1857)

Men , Beauty , Passion , Heart

“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!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Building of the Ship

Source: The Building of the Ship (1849), Lines 378-382.

Fate , Fear , Hope , Strong

“The grave itself is but a covered bridge,
Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Golden Legend, Pt. V, A Covered Bridge at Lucerne.

Light

“In the long, sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face — the face of one long dead —
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Cross of Snow http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/longfellow/19251 (1879).

Light , Night , Dead

“Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

Part II, section 1.
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847)

Strong , Silence

“The prayer of Ajax was for light.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Goblet of Life, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Light

“Stars of the summer night!
Far in yon azure deeps,
Hide, hide your golden light!
She sleeps!
My lady sleeps!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Spanish Student http://www.readbookonline.net/title/3208/, Act I, sc. iii (serenade) (1843).

Star , Sleep , Light , Summer

“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.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Children's Hour

The Children's Hour, St. 2.

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

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Children's Hour http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/longfellow/19249, St. 1 (1860).

Children , Night

“There is no flock, however watched and tended,
But one dead lamb is there!
There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended,
But has one vacant chair!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Resignation

Resignation, st. 1 (1849).

Dead

“Hold the fleet angel fast until he bless thee.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book Kavanagh

Kavanagh.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Angels

“From the water-fall he named her,
Minnehaha, Laughing Water.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. IV, Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis, st. 33.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

Water

“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.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Holidays http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/longfellow/19219 (1878).

Secret , Feeling , Silence , Holiday

“He speaketh not; and yet there lies
A conversation in his eyes.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Hanging of the Crane.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Beauty

“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.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Castle-builder.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Faith

“I stood on the bridge at midnight,
As the clocks were striking the hour,
And the moon rose o'er the city,
Behind the dark church-tower.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Bridge

The Bridge, st. 1 (1845).

“By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. III, Hiawatha’s Childhood, st. 8.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

Water , Daughters , Sea

“When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

Part I, section 1.
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847)

Music

“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.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Village Blacksmith

St. 2.
The Village Blacksmith (1842)

World

“Oh the long and dreary Winter!
Oh the cold and cruel Winter!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow book The Song of Hiawatha

Pt. XX.
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)

Winter

“O thou child of many prayers!
Life hath quicksands; life hath snares!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Maidenhood http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/longfellow/12212, st. 9 (1842).

Life

“St. Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Ladder of St. Augustine, st. 1 (1858).

“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!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Excelsior

Excelsior, st. 1 (1842).

Youth , Night

“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.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

Part I, section 1.
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847)

Fear , Heart , Envy

“He has singed the beard of the king of Spain.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Dutch Picture, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Singing

“And in the wreck of noble lives
Something immortal still survives.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Building of the Ship

Source: The Building of the Ship (1849), Lines 375-376.

“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.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Tales of a Wayside Inn

Pt. I, The Landlord's Tale: Paul Revere's Ride, st. 2.
Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863-1874)

Sea , Country

“Hospitality sitting with Gladness.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Translation from Frithiof's Saga.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“He is a little chimney and heated hot in a moment.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Courtship of Miles Standish

Part VI
The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858)

“As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so change of studies a dull brain.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Table-Talk (1857)

Study , Change

“And suddenly through the drifting brume
The blare of the horns began to ring.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Tales of a Wayside Inn

King Olaf's War-Horns, st. 2.
Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863-1874)