My Cathedral by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker compares two pines and their surrounding vines to a cathedral, with wind as its organ and birds as its choir. An invitation to enter and listen leads to the thought that worship can occur without words.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Sonnet, Nature Poetry, Religious Poetry · 164 words
First lines
Like two cathedral towers these stately pines / Uplift their fretted summits tipped with cones; / The arch beneath them is not built with stones, / Not Art but Nature traced these lovely lines, / And carved this graceful arabesque of vines; / No organ but the wind here sighs and moans, / No sepulchre conceals a martyr's bones. / No marble bishop on his tomb reclines. / Enter! the pavement, carpeted with leaves, / Gives back a softened echo to thy tread! / Listen! the choir is singing; all the birds, / In leafy galleries beneath the eaves, / Are singing! listen, ere the sound be fled, / And learn there may be worship with out words.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen lines form a rhyming octave and sestet, turning from a description of the pines to an invitation to enter and listen.
- Nature Poetry — Pines, vines, fallen leaves, wind and birdsong supply every feature of the imagined place of worship.
- Religious Poetry — The comparison with a cathedral culminates in the suggestion that listening to birds can teach worship without words.
Tags
pines · birdsong · wind · worship · sonnet
What this Textopian page supports
My Cathedral 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, Nature Poetry, Religious Poetry
- Length: 164 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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