The Arrow and the Song
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Arunima: umm, read it long time back when I was going to give my boards. We were 149 in the batch and knew all of us won't be together. With much love, we had scribbled on each other's scrap book, these lines from this fellow. Ah! those were the days when friendship meant the world.*
Claytonia Vices: Ya, friendship did mean the world then... it still means a lot, but I guess we don't use the word 'forever' as frequently (or carelessly?) as we used to. I guess we understand the impermanence of things better... I think I should blog on this... or would you like to do the honours, Arunima? :-)
Arunima: please go ahead. Iwould love to leave my footprints on your page.*
Claytonia Vices: Footprints? Hmmm... thank God you are not very heavy! ;-)
Arunima: :-)
(I am scared to open my mouth. you will blog that also. so just a smiley.)*
*Posted with permission of course! :-)
Claytonia Vices: Ya, friendship did mean the world then... it still means a lot, but I guess we don't use the word 'forever' as frequently (or carelessly?) as we used to. I guess we understand the impermanence of things better... I think I should blog on this... or would you like to do the honours, Arunima? :-)
Arunima: please go ahead. Iwould love to leave my footprints on your page.*
Claytonia Vices: Footprints? Hmmm... thank God you are not very heavy! ;-)
Arunima: :-)
(I am scared to open my mouth. you will blog that also. so just a smiley.)*
*Posted with permission of course! :-)
7 comments:
:-)
:-)
I read this in school too.
Wow.
Please read "The Bull" by Ralph Hodgson. Its one of my favourite poems. You can google it and you will come up with many links.
-PeAcE
--WiTh
---GuNs
Now this was totally something!! Felt like i was a fly on the wall..more...
Fly on the wall??? Lol!!
I think we studied this poem in class 2/3 in school. I haven't read it in a very looong time...suddenly seeing the poem here was kind of jolting. Would you believe even though it was centuries ago that I learned the poem, when I read it now I could immediately tell what the next line was just from memory. And it's bringing back soo many memories it hurts..
thanks for posting this and reminding me about the "true" best years of my life all over again :-)
thanks sundancer... :-)
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