Nature by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker compares Nature leading us toward death to a mother taking a reluctant child to bed. Like the child leaving his playthings, we lose familiar attachments and approach rest uncertain whether to go or stay, unable to comprehend the unknown.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Sonnet, Meditative Poetry · 168 words
First lines
As a fond mother, when the day is o'er, / Leads by the hand her little child to bed, / Half willing, half reluctant to be led, / And leave his broken playthings on the floor, / Still gazing at them through the open door, / Nor wholly reassured and comforted / By promises of others in their stead, / Which, though more splendid, may not please him more; / So Nature deals with us, and takes away / Our playthings one by one, and by the hand / Leads us to rest so gently, that we go / Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay, / Being too full of sleep to understand / How far the unknown transcends the what we know.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines turn from a child's reluctance at bedtime to the human uncertainty that Nature's guidance toward rest brings.
- Meditative Poetry — The comparison between bedtime and final rest considers our attachment to familiar things and inability to comprehend what follows.
Tags
mortality · attachment · motherhood · sleep · uncertainty · sonnet
What this Textopian page supports
Nature 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: 168 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Nature 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