The Galaxy by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker compares the Milky Way to a river whose stars resemble gold and silver sands. Rejecting the saint's pathway seen by the Spaniard and the myth of Phaeton's scorched skies, the speaker sees drifting worlds and star-dust flung from God's invisible chariot-wheels.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Sonnet, Descriptive Poetry · 162 words
First lines
Torrent of light and river of the air, / Along whose bed the glimmering stars are seen / Like gold and silver sands in some ravine / Where mountain streams have left their channels bare! / The Spaniard sees in thee the pathway, where / His patron saint descended in the sheen / Of his celestial armor, on serene / And quiet nights, when all the heavens were fair. / Not this I see, nor yet the ancient fable / Of Phaeton's wild course, that scorched the skies / Where'er the hoofs of his hot coursers trod; / But the white drift of worlds o'er chasms of sable, / The star-dust that is whirled aloft and flies / From the invisible chariot-wheels of God.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines turn from descriptions and inherited explanations of the Milky Way to the speaker's own vision.
- Descriptive Poetry — Comparisons with a river, metallic sands, and white drift against dark chasms describe the luminous band of stars.
Tags
Milky Way · stars · night sky · stardust · classical mythology · God · sonnet
What this Textopian page supports
The Galaxy 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: Sonnet, Descriptive Poetry
- Length: 162 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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