The Meeting
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
After so long an absence
At last we meet agin:
Does the meeting give us pleasure,
Or does it give us pain?
The tree of life has been shaken,
And but few of us linger now,
Like the prophets two or three berries
In the top of the uppermost bough.
We cordially greet each other
In the old, familiar tone;
And we think, though we do not say it,
How old and gray he is grown!
We speak of a Merry Christmas
And many a Happy New Year;
But each in his heart is thinking
Of those that are not here.
We speak of friends and their fortunes,
And of what they did and said,
Till the dead alone seem living,
And the living alone seem dead.
And at last we hardly distinguish
Between the ghosts and the guests;
And a mist and shadow of sadness
Steals over our merriest jests.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 160 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXAX XBXB ACXC DXEX XFEF XGDG |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 767 |
Words | 153 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"The Meeting" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/18888/the-meeting>.
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