| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893. | | | | The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems | Sonnets.
Mezzo Cammin |
| | | | Written at Boppard on the Rhine, August 25, 1842, just before leaving for home. |
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HALF of my life is gone, and I have let | |
| The years slip from me and have not fulfilled | |
| The aspiration of my youth, to build | |
| Some tower of song with lofty parapet. | |
| Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret | 5 |
| Of restless passions that would not be stilled, | |
| But sorrow, and a care that almost killed, | |
| Kept me from what I may accomplish yet; | |
| Though, half-way up the hill, I see the Past | |
| Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,— | 10 |
| A city in the twilight dim and vast, | |
| With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,— | |
| And hear above me on the autumnal blast | |
| The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights. | | | |
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