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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Nature


              1As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,
              2    Leads by the hand her little child to bed,
              3    Half willing, half reluctant to be led,
              4    And leave his broken playthings on the floor,
              5Still gazing at them through the open door,
              6    Nor wholly reassured and comforted
              7    By promises of others in their stead,
              8    Which, though more splendid, may not please him more;
              9So Nature deals with us, and takes away
            10    Our playthings one by one, and by the hand
            11    Leads us to rest so gently, that we go
            12Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay,
            13    Being too full of sleep to understand
            14    How far the unknown transcends the what we know.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with Bibliographical and Critical Notes, Riverside Edition (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1890), III, 207-08. PS 2250 E90 Robarts Library.
First publication date: 1875
Publication date note: In The Masque of Pandora
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 4:2002/4/6

Composition date: 1876
Form: Italian Sonnet
Rhyme: abbaabbacdecde

Other poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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