Curfew by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A curfew bell tolls as lights and fires go out and the chambers and hall fall silent for sleep. A completed book is laid aside, and its fancies fade like embers as song and story give way to silence.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Meditative Poetry · 248 words
First lines
I
Solemnly, mournfully, / Dealing its dole, / The Curfew Bell / Is beginning to toll.
Cover the embers, / And put out the light; / Toil comes with the morning, / And rest with the night.
Dark grow the windows, / And quenched is the fire; / Sound fades into silence, -- / All footsteps retire.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Short rhymed stanzas join the tolling bell, darkened rooms, and extinguished hearth through a recurring refrain of sleep and oblivion.
- Meditative Poetry — The second section compares a completed book to the closing day and its fading fancies to dying coals.
Tags
curfew bells · night · sleep · silence · embers · completed books
What this Textopian page supports
Curfew 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: Lyric Poetry, Meditative Poetry
- Length: 248 words
- Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Curfew by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
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