Sand of the Desert in an Hour-Glass
Watching desert sand fall through an hourglass, the speaker imagines the biblical figures, hermits, caravans, and pilgrims who may have passed over it. A desert vision unfolds before the speaker’s dreamy eye, with a vast moving column of sand, then vanishes as the half-hour ends.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Meditative Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 432 words
First lines
A handful of red sand, from the hot clime / Of Arab deserts brought, / Within this glass becomes the spy of Time, / The minister of Thought.
How many weary centuries has it been / About those deserts blown! / How many strange vicissitudes has seen, / How many histories known!
Genres
- Meditative Poetry — The speaker contemplates an hourglass, considering the sand’s possible history before watching its measured interval end.
- Lyric Poetry — Rhymed quatrains follow the speaker’s personal movement from observation into a desert vision and back.
Tags
hourglass · desert sand · passage of time · biblical allusions · pilgrimage · imagination
What this Textopian page supports
Sand of the Desert in an Hour-Glass 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: Meditative Poetry, Lyric Poetry
- Length: 432 words
- Structure: 1 section, 12 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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