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Quotes from Ballads and Other Poems — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1807–1882 United States

← All quotes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

19 quotes

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

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

No one is so accursed by fate,
No one so utterly desolate,
But some heart, though unknown,
Responds unto his own.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

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.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

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

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

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

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls
The burial-ground God's-Acre! It is just;
It consecrates each grave within its walls,
And breathes a benison o'er the sleeping dust.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

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

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

"Beware the pine tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

For Time will teach thee soon the truth,
There are no birds in last year's nest!

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

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.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

O suffering, sad humanity!
O ye afflicted ones, who lie
Steeped to the lips in misery,
Longing, yet afraid to die,
Patient, though sorely tried!

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

"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.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

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

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

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.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

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!

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

The prayer of Ajax was for light.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

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!

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.