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The Open Window

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Topics: classic

The old house by the lindens         Stood silent in the shade,     And on the gravelled pathway         The light and shadow played.     I saw the nursery windows         Wide open to the air;     But the faces of the children,         They were no longer there.     The large Newfoundland house-dog         Was standing by the door;     He looked for his little playmates,         Who would return no more.     They walked not under the lindens,         They played not in the hall;     But shadow, and silence, and sadness         Were hanging over all.     The birds sang in the branches,         With sweet, familiar tone;     But the voices of the children         Will be heard in dreams alone!     And the boy that walked beside me,         He could not understand     Why closer in mine, ah! closer,         I pressed his warm, soft hand!

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"The old house by the lindens..."

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Author:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"The old house by the lindens..." 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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