Share & Save
Meaning
The speaker is praising someone by saying they are more beautiful and more vital than songs or poems about them. The lines contrast living people with all other works of art, which are described as dead in comparison. It suggests that real life has a power that art cannot fully match.
When It Was Said
Not documented yet.
Who It Was Said To
Not documented yet.
Historical Context
Not documented yet.
Source
Not documented yet.
Original Language & Translation
Originally said in English.
Did They Really Say It?
No source found on Wikiquote; the quote is listed as attributed.
Did You Know?
Not documented yet.
About Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
American poet and educator
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator. He became one of the best-known literary figures of 19th-century New England, and is remembered for poems such as "Paul Revere's Ride," The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He also made a notable contribution as a translator, becoming the first American to complete a translation of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group whose work reached a wide domestic audience in its time.
More from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (132 quotes) →Other sayings from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only…”Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “Evil is only good perverted.”Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art.”Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “Like a French poem is life; being only perfect in structure when with the masculine rhymes mingled the femini…”Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
More Rest quotes
- “The only differences between a cult and a religion are the numbers of adherents and the degree to which they…”Sam Harris
- “I noticed the drama majors on campus when I was at Notre Dame. They just seemed to be freer spirits than the…”Catherine Hicks
- “Programmers work in bursts of productivity. Then, they let the brain rest and get back into it. A lot about t…”Marco Arment
More Poetry quotes
- “When the two become the oneAnd the inside outside, the outside inSo that the male be not male nor the female…”Wesley Stace
- “His pen spoke more to her than he ever did”.In the war of words, some are unwritten and some are unspoken.”Nishikant
- “Starlight beats when heart twinklesYouthful sky beyond cloudy wrinklesMuse of glory to flame the nightVerse i…”Munia Khan