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Listen to “Arrow Song” by Gunny Markefka, with lyrics from Longfellow. “Arrow Song” is from his album Arrow Songs, which features songs with lyrics from Shakespeare, Blake, Cowper, Milton, Byron, and Bulwer-Lytton. The album can be previewed and purchased here.

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The Arrow and the Song

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

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The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


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4 Responses

  2. Sally Cook

    Interesting take – the best lyricists are always poets. Thanks for joining us !

    Reply
  3. James A. Tweedie

    Gunny,

    Nicely composed. Nicely arranged. Nicely produced. Nicely performed.
    Real nice. Really nice. Better than nice. Really, really good. And beautiful!

    Thank you for sharing this. Please share with us again. The interface of poetry and music, when joined by a skilled and inspired artist, uplifts both the words and the music–as you and your music have done with Longfellow’s poem.

    Reply

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