My Lost Youth by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker recalls his seaside boyhood town, its ships and fort, a distant sea battle, old friendships, early loves, and schoolboy longings. A remembered Lapland song runs through these recollections. Visiting the town, he encounters unfamiliar faces but finds his lost youth again in memories of Deering's Woods, with joy that is almost pain.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Nostalgic Poetry · 995 words
First lines
Often I think of the beautiful town / That is seated by the sea; / Often in thought go up and down / The pleasant streets of that dear old town, / And my youth comes back to me. / And a verse of a Lapland song / Is haunting my memory still: / "A boy's will is the wind's will, / And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
I can see the shadowy lines of its trees, / And catch, in sudden gleams, / The sheen of the far-surrounding seas, / And islands that were the Hersperides / Of all my boyish dreams. / And the burden of that old song, / It murmurs and whispers still: / "A boy's will is the wind's will, / And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
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My Lost Youth is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Nostalgic Poetry
- Length: 995 words
- Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for My Lost Youth by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — First-person stanzas express the speaker's changing feelings through recollections and a recurring song refrain.
- Nostalgic Poetry — The speaker remembers boyhood streets, friendships, loves, and dreams, then recovers a sense of youth amid the familiar woods.
Tags
childhood memories · seaside towns · ships · friendship · youthful dreams · nostalgia