The discord in the harmonies of life! But why, you ask me, should this tale be told To men grown old, or who are growing old? When each had numbered more than four Cut off from labor by the failing light; Something remains for us to do or dare; Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear; Not Edipus Coloneus, or Greek Ode, Or tales of pilgrims that one morning rode Out of the gateway of the Tabard Inn, 280 But other something, would we but begin; For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day. 1874. 1875. THE HERONS OF ELMWOOD 1 WARM and still is the summer night, As here by the river's brink I wander; White overhead are the stars, and white The glimmering lamps on the hillside yonder. ''Elmwood' was the home of James Russell Lowell, in Cambridge, about a half mile distant from the Longfellow home. IN THE CHURCHYARD AT TARRYTOWN1 HERE lies the gentle humorist, who died How sweet a life was his; how sweet a death! O YE dead Poets, who are living still From the sharp crown of thorns upon your head, Ye were not glad your errand to fulfil? 1876. NATURE As a fond mother, when the day is o'er, Still gazing at them through the open door, 1 The burial-place of Washington Irving. On Longfellow's great admiration for Irving, see the Life, vol. i, p. 12. The second of desire, the third of thought; This is the lore a Spanish monk, distraught With dreams and visions, was the first to teach. These Silences, commingling each with each, Made up the perfect Silence that he sought And prayed for, and wherein at times he caught Mysterious sounds from realms beyond our reach. O thou, whose daily life anticipates The spiritual world preponderates, 1877. WAPENTAKE & TO ALFRED TENNYSON POET! I come to touch thy lance with mine; Not as a knight, who on the listed field 2 Written for Whittier's seventieth birthday. 3 When any came to take the government of the Hundred or Wapentake in a day and place appointed, as they were accustomed to meete, all the better sort met him with lances, and he alighting from his horse, all rise up to him, and he setting or holding his lance upright, all the rest come with their lances, according to the auncient custome in confirming league and publike peace and obedience, and touch his lance or weapon, and thereof called Wapentake, for the Saxon or old English wapun is weapon, and tac, tactus, a touching, thereby this meeting called Wapentake, or touching of weapon, because that by that signe and ceremonie of touching weapon or the lance, they were sworne and confederate. Master Lamberd in Minshew. (LONGFELLOW.) 1 After the capture of Louisburg in 1745 by the Massachusetts colonists, the French in revenge sent a large fleet against Boston the next year; but it was so disabled by storms that it had to put back. Mr. Thomas Prince was the pastor of the Old South Meeting-house. In 1877, when the Old South was in danger of being destroyed, Rev. Edward Everett Hale wrote to Longfellow: You told me that if the spirit moved, you would try to sing us a song for the Old South Meeting-house. I have found such a charming story that I think it will really tempt you. I want at least to tell it to you.... The whole story of the fleet is in Hutchinson's Massachusetts, ii. 384, 385. The story of Prince and the prayer is in a tract in the College Library, which I will gladly send you, or Mr. Sibley will. I should think that the assembly in the meetinghouse in the gale, and then the terror of the fleet when the gale struck them, would make a ballad-if the spirit moved!' Compare Whittier's 'In the Old South' and 'The Landmarks,' and Holmes's 'An Appeal for the Old South.' 1877. WHO PRESENTED TO ME, ON MY SEVENTY- Am I a king, that I should call my own Or by what reason, or what right divine, Only, perhaps, by right divine of song Only because the spreading chestnut tree Well I remember it in all its prime, The affluent foliage of its branches made ΤΟ There, by the blacksmith's forge, beside the street, Its blossoms white and sweet 1 For an account of the chair, with its inscriptions, see the Life, vol. iii, pp. 446-448. Longfellow gave orders that every child who wished to see the chair and sit in it should be allowed to do so; and had a large number of copies of this poem printed, one of which was given to each child who wished it. |