American poet (1807-1882)
Many critics are like woodpeckers, who, instead of enjoying the fruit and shadow of a tree, hop incessantly around the trunk, pecking holes in the bark to discover some little worm or other.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
Some poems are like the Centaurs--a mingling of man and beast, and begotten of Ixion on a cloud.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Evangeline
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Morituri Salutamus", Poems and Other Writings
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 men that women marry,
And why they marry them, will always be
A marvel and a mystery to the world.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Michael Angelo"
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
and silently steal away.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Day Is Done"
Ah! vainest of all things
Is the gratitude of kings.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Belisarius
The architect
Built his great heart into these sculptured stones,
And with him toiled his children, and their lives
Were builded, with his own, into the walls,
As offerings unto God.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Christus: The Golden Legend
I know not how it is, but during a voyage I collect books as a ship does barnacles.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
letter to Charles Sumner, September 17, 1842
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
There in seclusion and remote from men
The wizard hand lies cold,
Which at its topmost speed let fall the pen,
And left the tale half told.
Ah! who shall lift that wand of magic power,
And the lost clew regain?
The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower
Unfinished must remain!
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Hawthorne"
Every man is in some sort a failure to himself. No one ever reaches the heights to which he aspires.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
The first pressure of sorrow crushes out from our hearts the best wine; afterwards the constant weight of it brings forth bitterness, -- the taste and stain from the lees of the vat.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
The surest pledge of a deathless name
Is the silent homage of thoughts unspoken.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Herons of Elmwood", Keramos and Other Poems
Burn, O evening hearth, and waken
Pleasant visions, as of old!
Though the house by winds be shaken,
Safe I keep this room of gold!
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"The Bridge of Cloud"
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.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"A Psalm of Life"
Truths that startled the generation in which they were first announced become in the next age the commonplaces of conversation; as the famous airs of operas which thrilled the first audiences come to be played on hand-organs in the streets.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Table-Talk
Youth, hope, and love:
To build a new life on a ruined life,
To make the future fairer than the past,
And make the past appear a troubled dream.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
The Masque of Pandora
Who dares to say that he alone has found the truth?
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
The New England Tragedies