On the Terrace of the Aigalades
From a high terrace, a speaker and companions behold the sea, town, and highway, which speak of shipwrecks, exhausting toil, and a road north ending in death. Their sheltered life among flowers, fruit-bearing trees, vines, and waterfalls prompts an appeal to prolong today's pleasures and leave those routes to the passing crowd.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Pastoral Poetry · 404 words
First lines
By Joseph Mery
From this high portal, where upsprings / The rose to touch our hands in play, / We at a glance behold three things -- / The Sea, the Town, and the Highway.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Rhymed quatrains express a shared pleasure in the terrace surroundings and culminate in an appeal to forget tomorrow in today.
- Pastoral Poetry — Shade, flowers, fruitful soil, oil-bearing trees, and grapes sustain a life of leisure contrasted with urban toil and dangerous travel.
Tags
terrace · flowers · waterfalls · leisure · shipwrecks · living in the present
What this Textopian page supports
On the Terrace of the Aigalades 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, Pastoral Poetry
- Length: 404 words
- Structure: 1 section, 11 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Difficult (College Level)
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