The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Генри Уодсуорт Лонгфелло
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Название: The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Автор: Генри Уодсуорт Лонгфелло

Издательство: Bookwire

Жанр: Языкознание

Серия:

isbn: 4057664128171

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ Never—forever!"

      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!"

       Table of Contents

      I shot 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.

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       Table of Contents

      Half of my life is gone, and I have let

       The years slip from me and have not fulfilled

       The aspiration of my youth, to build

       Some tower of song with lofty parapet.

      Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret

       Of restless passions chat would not be stilled,

       But sorrow, and a care that almost killed,

       Kept me from what I may accomplish yet;

      Though, half way up the hill, I see the Past

       Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights—

       A city in the twilight dim and vast,

      With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights.—

       And hear above me on the autumnal blast

       The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights.

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      Lo! in the painted oriel 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.

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      Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,

       With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,

       Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,

       And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!

      Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,

       Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand

       Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,

       Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!

      Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended

       So long beneath the СКАЧАТЬ