Memories by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker remembers people once dear who are alive but absent, their memories obscured by other thoughts and troubles. Afraid to ask whether those people remember with the same pleasure, the speaker considers whether past pleasures may retain enduring roots.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Sonnet, Lyric Poetry · 169 words
First lines
Oft I remember those whom I have known / In other days, to whom my heart was led / As by a magnet, and who are not dead, / But absent, and their memories overgrown / With other thoughts and troubles of my own, / As graves with grasses are, and at their head / The stone with moss and lichens so o'erspread, / Nothing is legible but the name alone. / And is it so with them? After long years, / Do they remember me in the same way, / And is the memory pleasant as to me? / I fear to ask; yet wherefore are my fears? / Pleasures, like flowers, may wither and decay, / And yet the root perennial may be.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines turn from memories of absent people to questions about reciprocal remembrance and the endurance of pleasure.
- Lyric Poetry — A first-person speaker expresses the pleasure of remembering, uncertainty about being remembered, and fear of asking.
Tags
memory · absence · past relationships · uncertainty · sonnet
What this Textopian page supports
Memories 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, Lyric Poetry
- Length: 169 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Memories by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph