A Shadow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker wonders what would become of children who depend on the speaker's help if the speaker died before seeing their lives unfold. The reflection turns toward consolation: generations pass, and those who follow will find hope and strength as their predecessors did.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Sonnet, Meditative Poetry · 173 words
First lines
I said unto myself, if I were dead, / What would befall these children? What would be / Their fate, who now are looking up to me / For help and furtherance? Their lives, I said, / Would be a volume wherein I have read / But the first chapters, and no longer see / To read the rest of their dear history, / So full of beauty and so full of dread. / Be comforted; the world is very old, / And generations pass, as they have passed, / A troop of shadows moving with the sun; / Thousands of times has the old tale been told; / The world belongs to those who come the last, / They will find hope and strength as we have done.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines turn from concern for dependent children to consolation about succeeding generations.
- Meditative Poetry — The speaker considers a possible death and the children's uncertain future, then reflects on generations finding hope and strength.
Tags
mortality · children · generations · consolation · hope · sonnet
What this Textopian page supports
A Shadow is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Sonnet, Meditative Poetry
- Length: 173 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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