The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

May 28, 1857

It was fifty years ago,
In the pleasant month of May,
In the beautiful Pays de Vaud,
A child in its cradle lay.

And Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee,
Saying: Here is a story-book
Thy Father has written for thee.

Come, wander with me, she said,
Into regions yet untrod;
And read what is still unread
In the manuscripts of God.

And he wandered away and away
With Nature, the dear old nurse,
Who sang to him night and day
The rhymes of the universe.

And whenever the way seemed long,
Or his heart began to fail,
She would sing a more wonderful song,
Or tell a more marvellous tale.

So she keeps him still a child,
And will not let him go,
Though at times his heart beats wild
For the beautiful Pays de Vaud;

Though at times he hears in his dreams
The Ranz des Vaches of old,
And the rush of mountain streams
From glaciers clear and cold;

And the mother at home says, Hark!
For his voice I listen and yearn;
It is growing late and dark,
And my boy does not return!