Suggestive programs for special day exercises/Longfellow Day/Poet and His Songs

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

THE POET AND HIS SONGS.

As the birds come in the spring,
We know not from where;
As the stars come at evening
From depths of the air;

As the rain comes from the cloud.
And the brook from the ground;
As suddenly, low or loud.
Out of silence a sound;

As the grape comes to the vine.
The fruit to the tree;
As the wind comes to the pine,
And the tide to the sea;

As come the white sails of ships
O’er the ocean’s verge;
As comes the smile to the lips,
The foam to the surge;

So come to the Poet his songs,
All hitherward blown
From the misty realm that belongs-
To the vast Unknown.

His, and not his, are the lays
He sings; and their fame
Is his, and not his; and the praise
And the pride of a name.

For voices pursue him by day
And haunt him by night.
And he listens and needs must obey.
When the Angel says: “ Write!”