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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.
Online text © 1998-2009 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 1890
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