dots-menu
×

Home  »  Yale Book of American Verse  »  57 Song of the Silent Land

Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (1838–1915). Yale Book of American Verse. 1912.

(Lied: Ins Stille Land) BY JOHANN GAUDENZ VON SALIS-SEEWIS

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807–1882

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

57 Song of the Silent Land

INTO the Silent Land!

Ah! who shall lead us thither?

Clouds in the evening sky more darkly gather,

And shattered wrecks lie thicker on the strand.

Who leads us with a gentle hand

Thither, oh, thither,

Into the Silent Land?

Into the Silent Land!

To you, ye boundless regions

Of all perfection! Tender morning-visions

Of beauteous souls! The Future’s pledge and band!

Who in Life’s battle firm doth stand,

Shall bear Hope’s tender blossoms

Into the Silent Land!

O Land! O Land!

For all the broken-hearted

The mildest herald by our fate allotted,

Beckons, and with inverted torch doth stand

To lead us with a gentle hand

To the land of the great Departed,

Into the Silent Land!