Lyric Poem · Life

Loss And Gain

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Reading room

1When I compare

2What I have lost with what I have gained,

3What I have missed with what attained,

4Little room do I find for pride.

5I am aware

6How many days have been idly spent;

7How like an arrow the good intent

8Has fallen short or been turned aside.

9But who shall dare

10To measure loss and gain in this wise?

11Defeat may be victory in disguise;

12The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.

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“Loss And Gain” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — quilloak.com/poems/loss-and-gain

Quick facts

Poem: Loss And Gain
Poet: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Length: 12 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Life

Craft notes

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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: 12 lines · 3 quatrains
End rhyme: ABBC in 67% of the stanzas. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.

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Author record: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882
Source record: PoetryDBLoss And Gain 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 8ec697b6c108d85b…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Life

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