Page 2 - take_heart

TA K E H E A RT

A Conversation in Poetry

Edited & Introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate

Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem Copyright public Domain. Reprinted from “The Maine Poets,” Down East Books, 2003. Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to David Turner, Special Assistant to the Maine Poet Laureate, at 207-228-8263 or poetlaureate@mainewriters.org.

In celebration of mothers everywhere, here is a poem by one of Maine’s most important poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In it, Longfellow imagines Nature as a loving mother who guides us in our fnal years toward the unknown.

Nature

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As a fond mother, when the day is o’er, Leads by the hand her little child to bed, Half willing, half reluctant to be led, And leave his broken playthings on the foor, Still gazing at them through the open door, Nor wholly reassured and comforted By promises of others in their stead,

Which, through more splendid, may not please him more;

So Nature deals with us, and takes away Our playthings one by one, and by the hand Leads us to rest so gently, that we go Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay, Being too full of sleep to understand

How far the unknown transcends the what we know.