When the warm sun, that brings
Seed-time and harvest, has returned again,
‘T is sweet to visit the still wood, where springs
The first flower of the plain.

I love the season well,
When forest glades are teeming with bright forms,
Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell
The coming-on of storms.

From the earth’s loosened mould
The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives;
Though stricken to the heart with winter’s cold,
The drooping tree revives.

The softly-warbled song
Comes from the pleasant woods, and colored wings
Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along
The forest openings.

When the bright sunset fills
The silver woods with light, the green slope throws
Its shadows in the hollows of the hills,
And wide the upland glows.

And when the eve is born,
In the blue lake the sky, o’er-reaching far,
Is hollowed out and the moon dips her horn,
And twinkles many a star.

Inverted in the tide
Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows throw,
And the fair trees look over, side by side,
And see themselves below.

Sweet April! many a thought
Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed;
Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought,
Life’s golden fruit is shed.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem An April Day

2 Comments

  1. Suvankar Roy says:

    The poem by Longfellow is a verse of celebration.It reveals the inmost feelings of the poetic-persona who aspires the readers to open up their minds to the unexpressable beauty with which the nature/woods/landscape has deckeed herself after the departure of wintry wind.It salutes the arrival of the Spring in its varied forms and expresses the joy of the landscape as April comes

  2. Natalie Romano says:

    The poem by Longfellow has many romantic attitudes. Longfellow expresses a love for nature and the country in this poem like most American romantics. The poem also has an element of nostalgia. I liked this poem for its inspiring tone and for the fact that it does not have a lot of arcaic language.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.