Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE TWO RIVERS: 1; SONNET, by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE TWO RIVERS: 1; SONNET, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Slowly the hour-hand of the clock moves round
Last Line: One to the land of darkness and of dreams!


Slowly the hour-hand of the clock moves round;
So slowly that no human eye hath power
To see it move! Slowly in shine or shower
The painted ship above it, homeward bound,
Sails, but seems motionless, as if aground;
Yet both arrive at last; and in his tower
The slumberous watchman wakes and strikes the hour,
A mellow, measured, melancholy sound.
Midnight! the outpost of advancing day!
The frontier town and citadel of night!
The watershed of Time, from which the streams
Of Yesterday and To-morrow take their way,
One to the land of promise and of light,
One to the land of darkness and of dreams!





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