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The Castle-Builder

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Topics: classic

A gentle boy, with soft and silken locks         A dreamy boy, with brown and tender eyes,     A castle-builder, with his wooden blocks,         And towers that touch imaginary skies.     A fearless rider on his father's knee,         An eager listener unto stories told     At the Round Table of the nursery,         Of heroes and adventures manifold.     There will be other towers for thee to build;         There will be other steeds for thee to ride;     There will be other legends, and all filled         With greater marvels and more glorified.     Build on, and make thy castles high and fair,         Rising and reaching upward to the skies;     Listen to voices in the upper air,         Nor lose thy simple faith in mysteries.

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Author:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"A gentle boy, with soft and silken locks..." by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

About Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was the most popular American poet of the 19th century. His narrative poems—including "Paul Revere's Ride," "Evangeline," and "The Song of Hiawatha"—made poetry accessible to a mass audience and shaped American cultural identity.

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