C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Maidenhood
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)
M
In whose orbs a shadow lies
Like the dusk in evening skies!
Golden tresses, wreathed in one,
As the braided streamlets run!
Where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood and childhood fleet!
On the brooklet’s swift advance,
On the river’s broad expanse!
Beautiful to thee must seem
As the river of a dream.
When bright angels in thy vision
Beckon thee to fields Elysian?
As the dove, with startled eye,
Sees the falcon’s shadow fly?
That our ears perceive no more,
Deafened by the cataract’s roar?
Life hath quicksands,—life hath snares;
Care and age come unawares!
Morning rises into noon,
May glides onward into June.
Birds and blossoms many-numbered;
Age, that bough with snows incumbered.
When the young heart overflows,
To embalm that tent of snows.
Gates of brass cannot withstand
One touch of that magic wand.
In thy heart the dew of youth,
On thy lips the smile of truth.
Into wounds that cannot heal,
Even as sleep our eyes doth seal;
Into many a sunless heart;
For a smile of God thou art.