Lyric Poem · Nature
Afternoon in February
The day is ending,
The night is descending;
The marsh is frozen,
The river dead.
Through clouds like ashes
The red sun flashes
On village windows
That glimmer red.
The snow recommences;
The buried fences
Mark no longer
The road o'er the plain;
While through the meadows,
Like fearful shadows,
Slowly passes
A funeral train.
The bell is pealing,
And every feeling
Within me responds
To the dismal knell;
Shadows are trailing,
My heart is bewailing
And tolling within
Like a funeral bell.
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“Afternoon in February” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — quilloak.com/poems/afternoon-in-february
Quick facts
- Poem
- Afternoon in February
- Poet
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Length
- 24 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Death & Loss, Winter
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 24 lines · 6 quatrains
- Line length
- Mostly 5-syllable lines.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882
- Source record
- PoetryDBAfternoon in February by henry-wadsworth-longfellow, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 2dfe8fb18d929cd3…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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