Explore "Tales of a Wayside Inn" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Nunc plaudite! " the Student cried, / When he had finished; "now applaud, / As Roman actors used to say / At the conclusion of a play"; / And rose, and spread his hands abroad, / And smiling bowed from side to side, / As one who bears the palm away. / And generous was the applause and loud, / But less for him than for the sun, / That even as the tale was done / Burst from its canopy of cloud, / And lit the landscape with the blaze / Of afternoon on autumn days, / And filled the room with light, and made / The fire of logs a painted shade.
A sudden wind from out the west / Blew all its trumpets loud and shrill; / The windows rattled with the blast, / The oak-trees shouted as it passed, / And straight, as if by fear possessed, / The cloud encampment on the hill / Broke up, and fluttering flag and tent / Vanished into the firmament, / And down the valley fled amain / The rear of the retreating rain.