NATURE by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1878
[1] As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,
Leads by the hand her little child to bed,
Half willing, half reluctant 1 to be led,
And leave his broken playthings on the floor,
[5] Still gazing at them through the open door,
Nor wholly reassured and comforted
By promises of others in their stead,
Which, though more splendid, may not please him more;
So Nature deals with us, and takes away
[10] Our playthings one by one, and by the hand
Leads us to rest so gently, that we go
Scarce 2 knowing if we wish to go or stay,
Being too full of sleep to understand
How far the unknown transcends 3 the what we know.
NOTES :
1. Reluctant (adjective) : feeling or showing hesitation or unwillingness
2. "Scarcely" or hardly
3. Transcend (verb) : to rise above or go beyond

1. PART A: Which of the following best describes a central theme to the story?
A. Nature is a sympathetic and gentle caregiver in the cycle of life.
B. Death is inevitable and unknowable, but is far more gentle than many believe.
C. Growing up means leaving childhood and childish "playthings" behind.
D. Motherhood means having to know what's best for the child and providing it.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was an American poet and educator, known
particularly for his lyric poems. In this poem, Longfellow uses reassuring figurative language
to describe an otherwise daunting aspect of life
.
2. PART B: Which of the following quotes best supports the answer to Part A?
A. “As a fond mother, when the day is o'er, / Leads by the hand her little child to bed” (Lines
1-2)
B. "Half willing, half reluctant to be led, / And leave his broken playthings on the floor” (Lines
3-4)
C. "So Nature deals with us, and takes away / Our playthings one by one” (Lines 9-10)
D. "Leads us to rest so gently, that we go / Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay, / Being
too full of sleep to understand / How far the unknown transcends the what we know.”
(Lines 11-14)

3. Which of the following statements best describes the development of the child character over
the course of the poem?
A. The child is unwilling to fall asleep and resists the mother’s attempts to put him/her to bed.
B. The sleepy child happily follows the mother to go to sleep.
C. The child hesitates, wanting to still play, but follows the mother because s/he is too tired to
make up her/his mind.
D. The child is curious about what new playthings s/he will receive if s/he follows the mother.

4. Which of the following statements best describes Longfellow’s use of personification in this
poem?
A. Longfellow personifies nature as a caring mother leading her child to bed.
B. Longfellow personifies various aspects of life in the form of children’s toys.
C. Longfellow uses a sleepy child to represent all of humanity.
D. Longfellow uses the action of going to sleep to represent death.

5. How does the structure of the poem contribute to the meaning?
A. The first two stanzas depict a mother putting her child to bed, which serves as a
metaphor for Mother Nature easing humanity towards death.
B. The ABBA rhyme scheme creates an upbeat and celebratory tone, emphasizing the birth
of a child as the beginning of the cycle of life.
C. The repetition of the word “go” emphasizes how eager the speaker is for death as a way
to escape the harshness of everyday life.
D. The four-line stanzas at the beginning of the poem suggest the lengthy amount of time
the mother and child must spend together; the three-line stanzas at the end suggest how
brief life is.