Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Our poet for this term is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) and we have been gradually working our way through a book of his poems. Longfellow was an American poet  known for his lyrical style. Some of his best know poems are: Paul Revere's Ride, Hiawatha's Childhood, A Psalm of Life and Christmas Bells. 


Today we enjoyed this poem: The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls


The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

To me, there was a sense of breathing inherent in the rhythm of this poem. Then, because we don't live anywhere near the ocean, and so a few of my kids didn't understand what a tide was, we watched the following:

My favorite Longfellow quote is:

"Music is the universal language of mankind."