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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE TWO RIVERS: 1; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Poet Analysis

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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