The Fruit of Love

Think of thy brother no ill, but throw a veil o’er his failings:

Guide the erring aright; for the Good, the Heavenly Shepherd

Took the lost lamb in his arms, and bore it back to its mother.

This is the fruit of love, and it is by its fruits that we know it.

-       Longfellow[1]

---

[1] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American educator and poet whose works include Paul Revere’s Ride, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy and was one of the five members of the group known as the Fireside Poets.

Longfellow was born in 1807 in Portland, Maine and studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts in a former headquarters of George Washington. His first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns from her dress catching fire. Longfellow himself died in 1882.

Longfellow predominantly wrote lyric poems which were known for their musicality and which often presented stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. (Source: Wikipedia)