Loving Longfellow



A Day of Sunshine

O gift of God! O perfect day:
Whereon shall no man work, but play;
Whereon it is enough for me,
Not to be doing, but to be!

Through every fibre of my brain,
Through every nerve, through every vein,
I feel the electric thrill, the touch
Of life, that seems almost too much.

I hear the wind among the trees
Playing celestial symphonies;
I see the branches downward bent,
Like keys of some great instrument.

And over me unrolls on high
The splendid scenery of the sky,
Where though a sapphire sea the sun
Sails like a golden galleon,

Towards yonder cloud-land in the West,
Towards yonder Islands of the Blest,
Whose steep sierra far uplifts
Its craggy summits white with drifts.

Blow, winds! and waft through all the rooms
The snow-flakes of the cherry-blooms!
Blow, winds! and bend within my reach
The fiery blossoms of the peach!

O Life and Love! O happy throng
Of thoughts, whose only speech is song!
O heart of man! canst thou not be
Blithe as the air is, and as free?

~Henry Waldsworth Longfellow


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Enjoying this "day of sunshine"!

4 comments:

Melinda said...

Loving the photo and the poem! We had a day like that yesterday. I love the days when the sun is shining in our hearts too - that is today - just a happy day of being together!

Anonymous said...

Very pretty... photo and poetry. I think I need to get poetry on tape. Do they have that? Like music on a winter's day...

The J's said...

That is an awesome photo! Such beautiful scenery you have!!

gkey said...

dear Poems to Love,

This is a beautiful one from my all~time favorite poet. We got to visit his home that is now a museum in Portland Maine a few years ago. It is wonderful!

Love,
Life~long fan of Longfellow
in
NE