Samuel Longfellow

Samuel Longfellow Poems

Samuel Longfellow Biography

Samuel Longfellow (1819-1892) was an American clergyman and hymn writer. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine to Stephen and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow; he is the younger brother of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He attended Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School, where his classmates included Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Samuel Johnson, with whom he would later collaborate in his hymn-writing. He is considered part of the second-generation of transcendentalists; after becoming a Unitarian pastor, he adapted the Transcendental philosophy he had encountered in divinity school into his hymns and sermons. He served as a pastor in Fall River, Massachusetts (1848), Second Unitarian Church (Brooklyn, New York) (1853), and Germantown, Pennsylvania (1860).)

The Best Poem Of Samuel Longfellow

Vesper Hymn

Now, on sea and land descending,
Brings the night its peace profound:
Let our vesper hymn be blending
With the holy calm around.
Soon as dies the sunset glory,
Stars of heaven shine out above,
Telling still the ancient story--
Their Creator's changeless love.

Now, our wants and burdens leaving
To his care who cares for all,
Cease we fearing, cease we grieving;
At his touch our burdens fall.
As the darkness deepens o'er us,
Lo! eternal stars arise;
Hope and Faith and Love rise glorious,
Shining in the Spirit's skies.

Samuel Longfellow Comments