Suspiria by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker grants Death only the mortal body and asks the Grave to receive remains like garments laid aside by the soul. Addressing Eternity, the speaker compares human life to a gust that bends a tree’s branches and trails its blossoms in dust.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Meditative Poetry · 120 words
First lines
Take them, O Death! and bear away / Whatever thou canst call thine own! / Thine image, stamped upon this clay, / Doth give thee that, but that alone!
Take them, O Grave! and let them lie / Folded upon thy narrow shelves, / As garments by the soul laid by, / And precious only to ourselves!
Take them, O great Eternity! / Our little life is but a gust / That bends the branches of thy tree, / And trails its blossoms in the dust!
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Three rhymed quatrains directly address Death, the Grave, and Eternity.
- Meditative Poetry — The speaker considers what death can claim, distinguishes bodily remains from the soul, and compares life’s brevity to a gust.
Tags
mortality · burial · soul · eternity
What this Textopian page supports
Suspiria 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, Meditative Poetry
- Length: 120 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
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