Poem Response 19

The Arrow and the Song
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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

Found at: http://poetryoutloud.org/poem/173890


I really like this poem. His flow is fantastic, the rhyme scheme is surprisingly easy, his words sound like lace, and the poem as a whole is simply marvelous.

I wish I knew what his song was about…

Have you ever had one of those moments where a thought you had forever ago is suddenly brought to mind, and it forms new clarity because of an experience? Or a feeling you thought was long since gone is re-awakened when someone from the past walks into your life again?

I feel like that is what his song was about… a thought or a feeling, and as it left his lips, it sort of slipped away into his past, as he continued forward. He forgot about it, almost, until one day he found a friend and the song was alive in them.

This poem is just cool to me.