The Fire of Drift-Wood
The speaker and companions sit in an old farmhouse near Marblehead, recalling their shared past, people changed or dead, and the pain of friends’ lives taking separate paths. A fire built from shipwreck wood prompts thoughts of unanswering vessels, while wind, waves, and flames mingle with their conversation and memories of lost emotional ventures.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Reflective Poetry · 496 words
First lines
Devereux Farm, Near Marblehead
We sat within the farm-house old, / Whose windows, looking o'er the bay, / Gave to the sea-breeze, damp and cold, / An easy entrance, night and day.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Rhymed quatrains convey the speaker’s feelings as conversation among friends gives way to memories and inward yearnings.
- Reflective Poetry — The companions consider their past and diverging lives, connecting unanswered ships with lost ventures of the heart.
Tags
friendship · memory · estrangement · shipwrecks · driftwood · firelight
What this Textopian page supports
The Fire of Drift-Wood 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: 496 words
- Structure: 1 section, 13 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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