I shot an arrow into the air.
“I shot an arrow into the air” is a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We probably remember this from our youth.
He is considered by many to be the most popular American poet of the 19th century, a storyteller, whose works are still cited to this day. They range from sentimental pieces to translations. Among his most interesting works are Evangeline (1847), a narrative poem of the former French colony of Acadia, and the Song of Hiawatha (1855), especially noted for its sing-song meter.
Longfellow is considered the first professional American poet. A number of his phrases have become a common property, such as “I shot an arrow into the air.” The poem:
“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, American Poet ~
Some of us have shot too many arrows through the years. Few arrows we found again, while many, lost in time. Have you stopped shooting arrows? Or ceased breathing a song?
