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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

An April Day

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow·1807–1882
Lines:32Movement:Romanticism
When the warm sun, that bringsSeed-time and harvest, has returned again,'T is sweet to visit the still wood, where springsThe first flower of the plain. I love the season well,When forest glades are teeming with bright forms,Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretellThe coming-on of storms. From the earth's loosened mouldThe sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives;Though stricken to the heart with winter's cold,The drooping tree revives. The softly-warbled songComes from the pleasant woods, and colored wingsGlance quick in the bright sun, that moves alongThe forest openings. When the bright sunset fillsThe silver woods with light, the green slope throwsIts 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 tideStand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows throw,And the fair trees look over, side by side,And see themselves below. Sweet April! many a thoughtIs wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed;Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought,Life's golden fruit is shed.