Mezzo Cammin
Mezzo Cammin
Original Text
The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with Bibliographical and Critical Notes, Riverside Edition (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1890), I, 234-35.
2 The years slip from me and have not fulfilled
3 The aspiration of my youth, to build
4 Some tower of song with lofty parapet.
5Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret
6 Of restless passions that would not be stilled,
8 Kept me from what I may accomplish yet;
9Though, half-way up the hill, I see the Past
10 Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights, --
11 A city in the twilight dim and vast,
12With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights, --
13 And hear above me on the autumnal blast
14 The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights.
Notes
1] The title means "midway through the journey" and comes from the first line of Dante's Divine Comedy: "Nel mezzo delcammin di nostra vita." Longfellow was 35 when he wrote this poem, halfway through the scriptural lifespan of 70 years. Back to Line
7] possibly the death of Longfellow's first wife in 1835. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1845
Publication Notes
In The Belfry of Bruges
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme
Form