Happy birthday, poet Longfellow

It is the birthday of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, best known for the works Paul Revere's Ride, Evangeline and The Song of Hiawatha. He is considered by some to be the best loved American poet. Here is a poem by Longfellow:

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 a 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.

Download a PDF of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poems.