Remorse by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A restless speaker wanders through a medieval arched gate at night and pauses on a bridge to watch water flow past without returning. Looking between the stars and the fleeting waves, the speaker voices remorse for days wasted in pleasure.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Reflective Poetry · 273 words
First lines
By August von Platen
How I started up in the night, in the night, / Drawn on without rest or reprieval! / The streets, with their watchmen, were lost to my sight, / As I wandered so light / In the night, in the night, / Through the gate with the arch mediaeval.
The mill-brook rushed from the rocky height, / I leaned o'er the bridge in my yearning; / Deep under me watched I the waves in their flight, / As they glided so light / In the night, in the night, / Yet backward not one was returning.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The first-person speaker expresses restless yearning and remorse in rhymed stanzas with a repeated night refrain.
- Reflective Poetry — Watching waves that never return leads the speaker to an inward reckoning with days wasted in pleasure.
Tags
night · passing time · self-reproach · flowing water
What this Textopian page supports
Remorse 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, Reflective Poetry
- Length: 273 words
- Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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