Explore "The Open Window" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The old house by the lindens / Stood silent in the shade, / And on the gravelled pathway / The light and shadow played.
I saw the nursery windows / Wide open to the air; / But the faces of the children, / They were no longer there.
The large Newfoundland house-dog / Was standing by the door; / He looked for his little playmates, / Who would return no more.
They walked not under the lindens, / They played not in the hall; / But shadow, and silence, and sadness / Were hanging over all.
The birds sang in the branches, / With sweet, familiar tone; / But the voices of the children / Will be heard in dreams alone!
And the boy that walked beside me, / He could not understand / Why closer in mine, ah! closer, / I pressed his warm, soft hand!