Travels by the Fireside
Rain draws the speaker to the fireside, where poems of lands beyond the sea bring back memories of youth. In imagination, the speaker hears Alpine torrents and Spanish mule-bells, sees castles by the Rhine, and travels without fatigue through the poets’ eyes.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Travel Poetry · 315 words
First lines
The ceaseless rain is falling fast, / And yonder gilded vane, / Immovable for three days past, / Points to the misty main,
It drives me in upon myself / And to the fireside gleams, / To pleasant books that crowd my shelf, / And still more pleasant dreams,
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Nine rhymed quatrains follow a first-person speaker’s thoughts as rain prompts fireside reading, recollection, and imagined journeys.
- Travel Poetry — The speaker journeys imaginatively through Alpine landscapes, Spain, Elsinore, and the Rhine while reading other poets’ accounts.
Tags
reading · imagined travel · memory · youth · rain · fireside
What this Textopian page supports
Travels by the Fireside 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: Lyric Poetry, Travel Poetry
- Length: 315 words
- Structure: 1 section, 9 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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