The Arrow and the Song

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.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I've been studying Longfellow in Literature, and I just love this poem about the far-reaching consequences of our actions. Some of my other favorite Longfellow poems are The Song of Hiawatha (which I read during vacation at WaNiPa last summer) and Auf Wiedersehen.