In the Harbour: the Four Lakes of Madison
In the Harbour: the Four Lakes of Madison - meaning Summary
Lakes as Mirrored Vision
Longfellow presents four Madison lakes as graceful, mythic presences that mirror the city and sky. By day they catch the sun’s course; by night they hold the constellations, creating double heavens. The poem treats landscape as a visionary, dreamlike tableau—lakes, town, and atmosphere fuse into a suspended, golden reflection that blurs boundary between reality and reverie.
Read Complete AnalysesFour limpid lakes,--four Naiades Or sylvan deities are these, In flowing robes of azure dressed; Four lovely handmaids, that uphold Their shining mirrors, rimmed with gold, To the fair city in the West. By day the coursers of the sun Drink of these waters as they run Their swift diurnal round on high; By night the constellations glow Far down the hollow deeps below, And glimmer in another sky. Fair lakes, serene and full of light, Fair town, arrayed in robes of white, How visionary ye appear! All like a floating landscape seems In cloud-land or the land of dreams, Bathed in a golden atmosphere!
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