Suggestive programs for special day exercises/Longfellow Day/Two Angels

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

THE TWO ANGELS.

(This poem commemorates the death of Lowell’s wife and the birth of one of Longfellow’s children.)

 
Two angels, one of Life and one of Death,
Passed o’er our village as the morning broke;
The dawn was on their faces and beneath,
The somber houses hearsed with plumes of smoke.

Their attitude and aspect were the same.
Alike their features and their robes of white;
But one was crowned with amaranth, as with flame,
And one with asphodels, like flakes of light.
 
I saw them pass on their celestial way;
Then said I, with deep fear and doubt oppressed,
“Beat not so loud, my heart, lest thou betray
The place where thy beloved are at rest!”
 
And he who wore the crown of asphodels,
Descending at my door began to knock;
And my soul sank within me, as in wells
The waters sink before an earthquake’s shock.

I recognized the nameless agony,
The terror and the tremor and the pain,
That oft before had filled or haunted me
And now returned with threefold strength again.

The door I opened to my heavenly guest
And listened, for I thought I heard God’s voice;
And, knowing whatso’er he sent was best.
Dared neither to lament nor to rejoice.