A Favorite Poem from a Fellow Mainer

[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a commanding figure in the cultural life of nineteenth-century America. Born in Portland, Maine, in 1807, he became a national literary figure by the 1850s, and a world- famous personality by the time of his death in 1882.]

DAYLIGHT & MOONLIGHT 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

Portland, Maine

In broad daylight, and at noon,

Yesterday I saw the moon

Sailing high, but faint and white,

As a school-boy's paper kite. 

In broad daylight, yesterday,

I read a Poet's mystic lay;

And it seemed to me at most

As a phantom, or a ghost. 

But at length the feverish day

Like a passion died away,

And the night, serene and still,

Fell on village, vale, and hill. 

Then the moon, in all her pride,

Like a spirit glorified,

Filled and overflowed the night

With revelations of her light. 

And the Poet's song again

Passed like music through my brain;

Night interpreted to me

All its grace and mystery