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BY JULIUS MOSEN

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Forms of saints and kings are standing

The cathedral door above;

Yet I saw but one among them

Who hath soothed my soul with love.

 

In his mantle,--wound about him,

As their robes the sowers wind,--

Bore he swallows and their fledglings,

Flowers and weeds of every kind.

 

And so stands he calm and childlike,

High in wind and tempest wild;

O, were I like him exalted,

I would be like him, a child!

 

And my songs,--green leaves and blossoms,--

To the doors of heaven would hear,

Calling even in storm and tempest,

Round me still these birds of air.