The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

‘The Arrow and the Song’ was written by acclaimed American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (famous for other poems like ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’ and ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day’).

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.