Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Poets
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“For next to being a great poet is the power of understanding one.”
“Like the river, swift and clear, Flows his song through many a heart.”
“All that is best in the great poets of all countries is not what is national in them, but what is universal.”
“For voices pursue him by day, And haunt him by night,— And he listens, and needs must obey, When the Angel says: "Write!"”
“O ye dead Poets, who are living still Immortal in your verse, though life be fled, And ye, O living Poets, who are dead Though ye are living, if neglect can kill, Tell me if in the darkest hours of ill, With drops of anguish falling fast and red From the sharp crown of thorns upon your head, Ye were not glad your errand to fulfill?”