BROADCASTS.com

HW Longfellow read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\n\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\n\n---------------------------------------------\n\nThe Day is Done\nby Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 \u2013 1882)\n\nThe day is done, and the darkness\n Falls from the wings of Night,\nAs a feather is wafted downward\n From an eagle in his flight.\n\nI see the lights of the village\n Gleam through the rain and the mist,\nAnd a feeling of sadness comes o\u2019er me\n That my soul cannot resist:\n\nA feeling of sadness and longing,\n That is not akin to pain,\nAnd resembles sorrow only\n As the mist resembles the rain.\n\nCome, read to me some poem,\n Some simple and heartfelt lay,\nThat shall soothe this restless feeling,\n And banish the thoughts of day.\n\nNot from the grand old masters,\n Not from the bards sublime,\nWhose distant footsteps echo\n Through the corridors of Time.\n\nFor, like strains of martial music,\n Their mighty thoughts suggest\nLife\u2019s endless toil and endeavor;\n And to-night I long for rest.\n\nRead from some humbler poet,\n Whose songs gushed from his heart,\nAs showers from the clouds of summer,\n Or tears from the eyelids start;\n\nWho, through long days of labor,\n And nights devoid of ease,\nStill heard in his soul the music\n Of wonderful melodies.\n\nSuch songs have power to quiet\n The restless pulse of care,\nAnd come like the benediction\n That follows after prayer.\n\nThen read from the treasured volume\n The poem of thy choice,\nAnd lend to the rhyme of the poet\n The beauty of thy voice.\n\nAnd the night shall be filled with music,\n And the cares, that infest the day,\nShall fold their tents, like the Arabs,\n And as silently steal away.\n\nFor hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.\n\nReading \xa9 Classic Poetry Aloud 2008