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Daylight and Moonlight by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Daylight and Moonlight by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Daylight and Moonlight Poem Text

In broad daylight, and at noon,
Yesterday I saw the moon
Sailing high, but faint and white,
As a school-boy’s paper kite.In broad daylight, yesterday,
I read a Poet’s mystic lay;
And it seemed to me at most
As a phantom, or a ghost.But at length the feverish day
Like a passion died away,
And the night, serene and still,
Fell on village, vale, and hill.Then the moon, in all her pride,
Like a spirit glorified,
Filled and overflowed the night
With revelations of her light.And the Poet’s song again
Passed like music through my brain;
Night interpreted to me
All its grace and mystery.

Poetry Review of Daylight and Moonlight

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was One of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian era penned this piece. The imagery used is wonderful. The beauty of the title itself is capturing. It will form a source of immediate peace. The readers are bound to love it!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The concept of this poem is very simple. It is about day and night. Longfellow begins this poem with the Moon. He saw it in the sky, floating as if a little boy’s paper kite. The Moon, if noticed in the afternoon or in broad daylight, appears as a faint watermark on a bluish-white canvas.

Like the Moon itself, the poet says that he had read a poem the previous day. In broad daylight, it seemed like a ghost, a phantom. Like the moon, it’s mystic garb was not visible. It was, thus, just a shadow.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

However, as the night took over and the day melted away, the serenity of the dark spread over the world. It wrapped the greenery with its long, beautiful hands.

This is when the Moon shone in all her pride. It was as if a spirit had been glorified. As if a ghost had been empowered. The Moon filled the world with her light, with her magical, calm, serene light.

The poem which the poet had read in broad daylight now came back to him. But now, it played like music in his brain. The night brought out the meaning of each syllable, each note of that song. The Night interpreted it for him.

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