The Village Blacksmith

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Dec 5, 2009
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I love this, I really really do. It brings a slight tear to my eye when I read it.

The Village Blacksmith
By: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Under a spreading chestnut tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.

His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.

Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.

And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And watch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor.

He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter's voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.

It sounds to him like her mother's voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.

Toiling,—rejoicing,—sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought!
 
What actually led me to finding out the entire poem was an old Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck cartoon. It's the one where it's Daffy only, and the backrounds keep changing to be different than what he is dressed for. He basically goes on a rampage with the 'artist'. Finally, he is in an airplane and goes to bail out. He pulls his chute, which is erased and replaced with an anvil. The anvil plummets him to the ground and he's standing there completely out of his mind banging on the anvil with a hammer and saying:

"Under a spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands. The smith, a mighty man is he, with large and sinewy..." at this time the artist replaces the anvil with a mortar shell.

BOOM!

"...hands"

Anyway, I couldn't understand most of what he was saying so I went to look it up. And found the poem. And, I love it!
 
Wasn't anything better than saturday morning cartoons when we we're kids, man I love that episode!

Jason
 
That is a good poem, you'll never see something like that poem in the garbage they put on tv these days for kids.
 
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