Excelsior

by Henry W[adsworth] Longfellow

Source of witness transcribed: The New-York Tribune (New York, New York)

Date of witness transcribed: 6 January 1842

Notes about this poem: "Excelsior" was printed in at least 272 newspapers during the nineteenth century. It can be found using ID 963182 in this table of most widely-reprinted poems.

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• The shades of night were falling fast,
• As through an Alpine village passed
• A youth who bore, ‘mid snow and ice,
• A banner with the strange device.

• Excelsior!

• His brow was sad, his eye beneath,
• Flashed like a falchion from its sheath;
• And like a silver clarion rung
• The accents of that unknown tongue,

• Excelsior!

• In happy homes he saw the light
• Of household fires gleam warm and bright
• Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
• And from his lips escaped a groan,

• Excelsior!

• “Try not the Pass!” the old man said;
• “Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
• The roaring torrent is deep and wide!”
• And loud that clarion voice replied

• Excelsior!

• “Oh stay,” the maiden said, “and rest
• Thy weary head upon this breast!”
• A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
• But still he answered, with a sigh,

• Excelsior!

• “Beware the pine tree’s withered branch!
• Beware the awful avalanche!”
• This was the peasant’s last good night,
• A voice replied, far up the hight,

• Excelsior!

• At break of day, as heavenward
• The pious monks of Saint Bernard
• Uttered the oft repeated prayer,
• A voice cried through the startled air

• Excelsior!

• A traveler, by the faithful hound,
• Half buried in the snow was found,
• Still grasping in his hand of ice
• That banner with the strange device

• Excelsior!

• There in the twilight cold and gray,
• Lifeless but beautiful, he lay,
• And from the sky, serene and far,
• A voice fell, like a falling star!
• Excelsior!