REVIEW POTPOURRI – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: The Rainy Day

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

by Peter Cates

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Rainy Day

Maine’s own Henry Wadsworth Longfellow achieved in one poem, very simply titled “The Rainy Day,” a harrowing depiction of the gray days we all face in more ways than meteorological:

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Because of his belief in the hope of eternity, Long­fellow did call for his readers to “cease” weeping and came close to being predictable and stupidly cheerful in “Behind the clouds is the sun still shining.”