Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was an American poet, born at Portland, Maine. After studying on the Continent, became professor of Modern Languages in Harvard University. He wrote "Hyperion," a romance in prose, and a succession of poems as well as lyrics, among the former "Evangeline," "The Golden Legend," "Hiawatha," and "Miles Standish".

Wisdom & Quotes

• Art is long, and Time is fleeting.

- A Psalm of Life

• A boy's will is the wind's will,

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.
- My Lost Youth

• The cares that infest the day

Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.
- 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.
- The Day is Done

• 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.
- The Children's Hour

• There was a little girl

Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
And when she was good
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
- There was a Little Girl

• Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small.

- Zenobius

• Music is the universal language of mankind - poetry their universal pastime and delight.

- Outre-Mer

• Listen, my children, and you shall hear,

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, is Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
- Paul Revere's Ride in Tales of a Wayside Inn

• 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.
- Paul Revere's Ride in Tales of a Wayside Inn

• Into each life some rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary.
- The Rainy Day

• 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 the fate!
- The Building of the Ship

• Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing;

Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence.
- The Theologian's Tale, in Tales of a Wayside Inn

• Why don't you speak for yourself, John?

- The Courtship of Miles Standish

• Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike.

- Evangeline

• Know how sublime a thing it is

To suffer and be strong.
- The Light of the Stars

• Under the spreading chestnut tree

The village smithy stands;
The smith a mighty man is he
With large and sinewy hands.
And muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.
He earns what'er he can,
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.
- The Village Blacksmith

John Greenleaf Whittier