Voices Of The Night - Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

Recited from Old Bentley Ballads. Also called "Footseps Of Angels" (I think) THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT . BY H. W. LONGFELLOW . WHEN the hours of day are number'd , And the voices of the night Wake the better soul , that slumber'd , To a holy calm delight . Ere the evening lamps are lighted , And , like phantoms grim and tall , Shadows from the fitful fire - light Dance upon the parlour wall , Then the forms of the departed Enter at the open door ! The beloved ones , the true - hearted , Come to visit me once more . He , the young and strong , who cherish'd Noble longings for the strife ! By the road - side fell , and perish'd , Weary with the march of life ! They , the holy ones , and weakly , Who the cross of suffering wore , Folded their pale hands so meekly , Spake with us on earth no more ! And with them the being beauteous , Who unto my youth was given , More than all things else to love me , And is now a saint in heaven . With a slow and noiseless footstep Comes that messenger divine , Takes the vacant chair beside me , Lays her gentle hand in mine . And she sits and gazes at me , With those deep and tender eyes , Like the stars , so still and saint - like , Looking downward from the skies . Utter'd not , yet comprehended , Is the spirit's voiceless prayer ; Soft rebukes , in blessings ended , Breathing from those lips of air . Oh ! though oft depress'd and lonely , All my fears are laid aside , If I but remember only Such as they have lived and died . LONGFELLOW was born in 1807 , at Portland in Maine , U. S. He took his degree with high honours , at Bowdoin College , in 1825. He studied law under his father , the Hon . Stephen Longfellow , one of the most eminent of the American lawyers . Not taking earnestly to the profession marked out for him , he travelled for three years through the chief countries of Europe , to qualify himself for the Professorship of Modern Languages , which had been offered him by his Alma Mater , and which he took on his return home . In 1835 he was offered the same chair , with higher emoluments attached to it , in Harvard Col- lege , Cambridge , Massachusetts , which he accepted , on condition of being allowed to travel a year through Germany and Scandinavia , in order to perfect himself in the languages and literature of northern Europe . This being agreed to by the Harvard authorities , Professor Longfellow performed his professional tour , and returned in 1836 to assume the duties of the professorship of modern languages , which he fulfilled with the most distinguished ability and success during the space of eighteen years , after which he retired into private life , taking up his residence at a short distance from the scene of his professional labours . He may be said , with Tennyson and the Brownings , to be at the head of our new school of poetry , so strongly distinguished by its irregularity and confusion of metres and extreme metaphysical tenden- cies from the Georgian school voted out of fashion with Byron , Moore , Scott , Campbell , and other masters of the English lyre who had formed themselves on the classic models of the reign of Queen Anne . Certainly of all the living poets of the United States none is so popular in his own country , in England , and wherever our language is read and spoken , as Longfellow . He has published over a number of years a great many short lyrics , lays , and ballads , which have been all received with more or less favour on both sides of the Atlantic ; but his longer ones , such as ' Evangeline , ' ' The Golden Legend , ' ' Hiawatha , ' and ' The Tales of a Wayside Inn , ' have won him his chief laurels , and are more likely to insure him a permanent reputation with the present and future generations . Some of the best of his minor poems he sent originally to ' Bentley's Miscellany . ' In addition to his poetic productions , he has contributed many valuable prose papers to ' The United States Literary Gazette , ' and ' The North American Review , and has written a couple of small novels or ro- mances , ' Hyperion , ' and ' Kavanagh , which are very easy and agreeable reading , if not very startling or sensational .