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The Builders

Representative Text

1 All are architects of fate,
working in these walls of time;
some with massive deeds and great,
some with ornaments of rhyme.

2 For the structure that we raise
time is with materials filled;
our todays and yesterdays
are the blocks with which we build.

3 Build today, then, strong and sure,
with a firm and ample base;
and ascending and secure
shall tomorrow find its place.

Source: Singing the Living Tradition #288

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Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth , D.C.L. was born at Portland, Maine, Feb. 27, 1807, and graduated at Bowdoin College, 1825. After residing in Europe for four years to qualify for the Chair of Modern Languages in that College, he entered upon the duties of the same. In 1835 he removed to Harvard, on his election as Professor of Modern Languages and Belles-Lettres. He retained that Professorship to 1854. His literary reputation is great, and his writings are numerous and well known. His poems, many of which are as household words in all English-speaking countries, display much learning and great poetic power. A few of these poems and portions of others have come into common use as hymns, but a hymn-writer in the strict sense of that term he… Go to person page >

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Text Information

First Line: All are architects of fate
Title: The Builders
Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Meter: 7.7.7.7
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain
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Timeline

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Instances

Instances (1 - 1 of 1)
Text

Singing the Living Tradition #288

Singing the Living Tradition #288
Include 15 pre-1979 instances
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