The Arrow and the Song

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807–1882)

The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems, 1845

I shot an arrow into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For, so swiftly it flew, the sightCould 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 oakI found the arrow, still unbroke;And the song, from beginning to end,I found again in the heart of a friend.

From The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems (1845), via the English Wikisource transcription.

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