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In its vastness,

Floats some fragment of a song:

From the far-off isles enchanted,
Heaven has planted

With the golden fruit of Truth;

From the flashing surf, whose vision
Gleams Elysian

In the tropic clime of Youth;

From the strong Will, and the Endeavor
That forever

1. In its earlier stanzas, this poem is
remarkable for the poet's command of
the imagery and wild music of his
theme; in the last three stanzas it shows
his surrender to the didactic impulse of
his times-here the desire to elaborate,

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for the common reader, the functions of the poet. The work appeared in Graham's Magazine for January, 1845, and again at the end of the year in The Belfry of Bruges.

Wrestle with the tides of Fate;

From the wreck of Hopes far-scattered,

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Tempest-shattered,

Floating waste and desolate;

Ever drifting, drifting, drifting
On the shifting

Currents of the restless heart;
Till at length in books recorded,

They, like hoarded

Household words, no more depart.

The Evening Star

Lo! in the painted oriels of the West,
Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines,
Like a fair lady at her casement, shines
The evening star, the star of love and rest!
And then anon she doth herself divest

Of all her radiant garments, and reclines
Behind the sombre screen of yonder pines,

With slumber and soft dreams of love oppressed.

O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus!*

My morning and my evening star of love!

My best and gentlest lady! even thus,

As that fair planet in the sky above,
Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night,

And from thy darkened window fades the light.

The Old Clock on the Stairs
Somewhat back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country-seat.

2. "October 30, 1845 *** Wrote the
sonnet Hesperus in the rustic seat of the
old apple-tree" [Longfellow's diary]. It
was addressed to his second wife. His
brother, in the Life, called it his "only
love-poem." It was collected in The Bel-
fry of Bruges.

3. Architectural term for a large bay window, here the western sky.

4. Hesperus was the Roman deity of the evening star, but in classical poetry sometimes the morning star also (cf. 1. 10). Identified with the planet Venus in modern astronomy.

5. The ancient homestead of the poem, in Pittsfield, was that of the grand

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parents of his second wife, whom Longfellow visited on his wedding journey in 1843. On beginning the composition (November 12, 1845), he noted in his diary the source of the refrain in a French passage (which we translate), by "Bridaine, the old French missionary, who said of eternity": It is a clock whose pendulum endlessly repeats only these two words in the silence of the tombs,-Forever, never! Never, forever! And amid these fearful reverberations the condemned cries out, "What is the hour?" and the voice of another outcast answers him, "Eternity." The poem was included in The Belfry of Bruges.

Across its antique portico

Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw;
And from its station in the hall
An ancient timepiece says to all,—
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

Half-way up the stairs it stands,

And points and beckons with its hands
From its case of massive oak,

Like a monk, who, under his cloak,
Crosses himself, and sighs, alas!

With sorrowful voice to all who pass,-
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

By day its voice is low and light;
But in the silent dead of night,
Distinct as a passing footstep's fall,
It echoes along the vacant hall,
Along the ceiling, along the floor,

And seems to say, at each chamber-door,—
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

Through days of sorrow and of mirth,
Through days of death and days of birth,
Through every swift vicissitude

Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood,
And as if, like God, it all things saw,
It calmly repeats those words of awe,-
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

In that mansion used to be

Free-hearted Hospitality;

His great fires up the chimney roared;

The stranger feasted at his board;

But, like the skeleton at the feast,

That warning timepiece never ceased,"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

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There groups of merry children played,
There youths and maidens dreaming strayed;
O precious hours! O golden prime,
And affluence of love and time!

Even as a miser counts his gold,

Those hours the ancient timepiece told,

"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

From that chamber, clothed in white,

The bride came forth on her wedding night;
There, in that silent room below,

The dead lay in his shroud of snow;

And in the hush that followed the prayer,

Was heard the old clock on the stair,

"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

All are scattered now and fled,
Some are married, some are dead;

And when I ask, with throbs of pain,
"Ah! when shall they all meet again?"
As in the days long since gone by,
The ancient timepiece makes reply,-
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

Never here, forever there,

Where all parting, pain, and care,
And death, and time shall disappear,
Forever there, but never here!
The horologe of Eternity
Sayeth this incessantly,-

"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

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1845

The Building of the Ship1

"Build me straight, O worthy Master!
Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel,

1. In November, 1849, "The Building of the Ship" appeared as the "leading

[1845] 1846

piece" in The Seaside and Fireside (dated 1850). It was at once recognized

That shall laugh at all disaster,

And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!"

The merchant's word

Delighted the Master heard;

For his heart was in his work, and the heart
Giveth grace unto every Art.

A quiet smile played round his lips,

As the eddies and dimples of the tide
Play round the bows of ships,
That steadily at anchor ride.

And with a voice that was full of glee,
He answered, "Erelong we will launch

A vessel as goodly, and strong, and stanch,
As ever weathered a wintry sea!”
And first with nicest skill and art,
Perfect and finished in every part,
A little model the Master wrought,
Which should be to the larger plan
What the child is to the man,
Its counterpart in miniature;

That with a hand more swift and sure
The greater labor might be brought
To answer to his inward thought.
And as he labored, his mind ran o'er
The various ships that were built of yore,
And above them all, and strangest of all
Towered the Great Harry,2 crank and tall,
Whose picture was hanging on the wall,
With bows and stern raised high in air,
And balconies hanging here and there,
And signal lanterns and flags afloat,
And eight round towers, like those that frown
From some old castle, looking down

as relating to the national disunity that
had just reached its crisis with the Mexi-
can War. The Compromise of 1850 had
not yet effected an uneasy truce between
the factions of North and South when
the great Fanny Kemble read the poem,
on February 12, to an audience "of
more than three thousand" in Boston.
It swept the country and remained an
eloquent plea for the preservation of
the Union. On a dark day of the Civil
War, when Noah Brooks read it to
President Lincoln, "his eyes filled with
tears, and *** he did not speak for
some minutes, but finally said, with
simplicity: 'It is a wonderful gift to be

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able to stir men like that.'" During
World War II, Winston Churchill, in a
speech referring to Allied unity, quoted
part of the famous closing section. Long-
fellow acknowledged the inspiration of
Schiller's The Song of the Bell for the
form of this poem; certainly he was
also inspired by his love of craftsman-
ship, and especially by his observation
of the craft of the shipbuilder in the
Portland Harbor of his boyhood.
2. Famous war vessel, built in 1488 by
Henry VII, first Tudor King of Eng-
land (1485-1509), whose marriage in
1486 united the warring Houses of Lan-
caster and York.

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