The Arrow and the Song
This poem, The Arrow and The Song, shows how a friendship can influence a person and live on within the heart.
The Arrow and the Song
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I shoot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)
Longfellow was a famous American poet who was a member of the "Fireside Poets."
This group of 19th century poets from New England included: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. This particular group of men were the first American poets whose popularity rivaled that of British poets at that time in history.
One of Longfellow's most well-known works is the popular "Paul Revere's Ride". He also wrote the first American translation of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy."
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