Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (b. 1801, d. 1882), the son of Hon. Stephen Longfellow, an eminent lawyer, was born in Portland, Maine. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825. After spending four years in Europe, he was Professor of Modern Languages and Literature at Bowdoin till 1835, when he was appointed to the chair of Modern Languages and Belles lettres in Harvard University. He resigned his professorship in 1854, after which time he resided in Cambridge, Mass. Longfellow wrote many original works both in verse and prose, and made several translations, the most famous of which is that of the works of Dante. His poetry is always chaste and elegant, showing traces of careful scholarship in every line. The numerous and varied editions of his poems are evidences of their popularity.

1. THERE is a Reaper whose name is Death,
       And, with his sickle keen,
   He reaps the bearded grain at a breath,
      And the flowers that grow between.

2. "Shall I have naught that is fair?" saith he;
        "Have naught but the bearded grain?
   Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me,
        I will give them all back again."

3. He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes,
       He kissed their drooping leaves;
    It was for the Lord of Paradise
       He bound them in his sheaves.

4. “My Lord has need of these flowerets gay,”
        The Reaper said, and smiled;
    “Dear tokens of the earth are they,
        Where he was once a child.

5.  “They shall all bloom in the fields of light,
        Transplanted by my care,
     And saints, upon their garments white,
        These sacred blossoms wear."

6. And the mother gave in tears and pain
        The flowers she most did love;
    She knew she should find them all again
        In the fields of light above.
 

7. O, not in cruelty, not in wrath,
        The Reaper came that day,
    ‘T was an angel visited the green earth,
        And took the flowers away.

DEFINITIONS.   3. Sheaves, bundles of grain. 4. To'ken , a
souvenir, that which is to recall some person, thing, or event. 5. Trans  planted, removed, and planted in another place.