Explore "The Broken Oar" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Once upon Iceland's solitary strand / A poet wandered with his book and pen, / Seeking some final word, some sweet Amen, / Wherewith to close the volume in his hand. / The billows rolled and plunged upon the sand, / The circling sea-gulls swept beyond his ken, / And from the parting cloud-rack now and then / Flashed the red sunset over sea and land. / Then by the billows at his feet was tossed / A broken oar; and carved thereon he read, / "Oft was I weary, when I toiled at thee"; / And like a man, who findeth what was lost, / He wrote the words, then lifted up his head, / And flung his useless pen into the sea.