Items 4a-c: “The Arrow and the Song,” by Henry W. Longfellow, Three Signatures and Envelope, no date
Item — Box: 15, Folder: 4
Series VII: Poetry, 1827-1941
From the Series:
Series VII: Poetry, 1827-1941, is arranged chronologically and features a broad range of mid 19th century to mid 20th century works including poems, booklets, and correspondence of various themes covering the difficult nature of military battles, religious faith, and romance. A main portion of the series highlights poetry and ballads focusing on the natural beauty of the American landscape and contrasting this with the nation's violent past. Featured authors in this series include Fitz-Greene Halleck, an American poet who worked as the personal secretary and advisor to John Jacob Aster, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of the most proficient American poets of the 19th century. Halleck and Longfellow's poems cover religious themes that explore the role that faith plays in determination, its relationship to the land, and how it impacts younger generations. William Henry Furness, American poet who was described by his peers as a theologian, transcendentalist, and an abolitionist, is another author in the collection that explores these religious themes without the nationalistic perspective. Finally, the largest outlier of this series is the romantic poem written by a British Major John Andre who was a major in the British Army and head of its Secret Service in America during the American Revolutionary War. Andre’s poem, The Frantick Lover, is included in a larger booklet with an introduction by Howard H. Peckham, historian and an authority on colonial and early American history, who provides background and historical context on the Major and the development of the poem. Central themes of this work include the destructive effect that feelings of jealousy and obsession can have especially when disguised as feelings of love. This work provides an interesting comparison to the other American poets within the collection.
Dates
- Created: no date
Creator
Disclaimer for Name and Subject Authorities
Some of the name and subject authority tags have been assigned by educated guessing and estimation of persons and subjects by region, age, profession, and familial relationships. They have been thoroughly researched by using primary and secondary sources available digitally, and named in each description, or in some cases linked directly to the person tag.
Access:
All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.
Extent
1 items
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Type of Material:
1a: Envelope to
1b: Autograph of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, no date
1c: Poem by Henry W. Longfellow, “The Arrow and the Song,” no date.
Condition:
Excellent.
Measurements:
8 ¾ in. x 7 ¼ in.
Title:
The Arrow and the Song
Description:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882, one of the most proficient American poets of the 19th century. The poem “The Arrow and the Song” is one Longfellow’s most popular works. The meaning of the arrow and song above are generally thought to be the comparison between hatred and kindness. The arrow is meant to be seen as mean words put out into the world with the intention to hurt while the song is kind words that are put out to better and enrich the one’s around us. Longfellow describes both of them as being ‘unable to follow’ in some way as people are unable to truly understand how one’s words can impact an individual in the moment and can’t control what happens to the words once they are out. But later in the work the speaker does find both objects highlighting the fact that words and their intentions never really go away. The work itself describes the hypothetical journey of an arrow and song in flight and the speaker in the poem searching for it and finding the arrow in a tree and the song in the “heart of a friend” at the end of the poem.
Transcription:
[Page 1]
The Arrow and the Song
I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth I know not where; For so swiftly it flew the sight Could not follow it in its flights.
I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth I know not where; For who hath sight so keen and strong That it can follow 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 W. Longfellow {Back} With W. Longfellow’s compliments
[Envelope]
Letters from H. W. Longfellow Mr Harrison Wright Wilkes Barre Pen [Three Signatures] Yours timely Henry W Longfellow
Yours timely Henry W Longfellow
With W. Longfellow’s compliments.
The Arrow and the Song
I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth I know not where; For so swiftly it flew the sight Could not follow it in its flights.
I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth I know not where; For who hath sight so keen and strong That it can follow 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 W. Longfellow {Back} With W. Longfellow’s compliments
[Envelope]
Letters from H. W. Longfellow Mr Harrison Wright Wilkes Barre Pen [Three Signatures] Yours timely Henry W Longfellow
Yours timely Henry W Longfellow
With W. Longfellow’s compliments.
Creator
Repository Details
Part of the Wilkes University Archives Repository
Contact:
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu