The Four Lakes of Madison
The speaker compares Madison's four lakes to blue-robed attendants holding golden-rimmed mirrors. Stars shine in their depths at night, and the lakes and town seem like a floating landscape in a golden land of dreams.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Nature Poetry, Descriptive Poetry · 169 words
First lines
Four limpid lakes, -- four Naiades / Or sylvan deities are these, / In flowing robes of azure dressed; / Four lovely handmaids, that uphold / Their shining mirrors, rimmed with gold, / To the fair city in the West.
By day the coursers of the sun / Drink of these waters as they run / Their swift diurnal round on high; / By night the constellations glow / Far down the hollow deeps below, / And glimmer in another sky.
Fair lakes, serene and full of light, / Fair town, arrayed in robes of white, / How visionary ye appear! / All like a floating landscape seems / In cloud-land or the land of dreams, / Bathed in a golden atmosphere!
Genres
- Nature Poetry — The verses describe four lakes, sunlight on their waters, and constellations reflected in their depths.
- Descriptive Poetry — Three rhymed stanzas picture the lakes as attendants with mirrors and the town as part of a floating, golden landscape.
Tags
lakes · reflections · sunlight · stars · personification
What this Textopian page supports
The Four Lakes of Madison 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: Nature Poetry, Descriptive Poetry
- Length: 169 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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