"For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day"
About this Quote
Longfellow takes the most feared fact of human life and flips it into a quiet argument for attention. Age, he insists, isn’t the afterparty to youth; it’s a second kind of prime time, “in another dress.” That costume change matters. He’s not pretending the body doesn’t sag or the world doesn’t narrow. He’s saying the self can widen anyway, if you learn to read the new wardrobe: slower days, deeper memory, fewer illusions to maintain.
The couplet’s real trick is its refusal of the usual moralizing about “staying young.” Opportunity doesn’t vanish; it migrates. Youth offers speed, appetite, and loud possibility. Age offers pattern recognition, perspective, and the hard-won ability to choose what not to chase. Longfellow makes this palatable through a natural metaphor that feels almost scientific: the stars were always there, “invisible by day.” Nothing is added; perception changes. Twilight isn’t just a pretty scene, it’s a theory of human development: when the glare of ambition and novelty fades, subtler lights become legible.
Context sharpens the intent. Longfellow writes as a 19th-century poet in a culture obsessed with progress and industry, yet personally marked by grief and endurance. The tone is consoling, but not sentimental. It’s an aesthetic of late life as revelation: not consolation prizes, but a different sky.
The couplet’s real trick is its refusal of the usual moralizing about “staying young.” Opportunity doesn’t vanish; it migrates. Youth offers speed, appetite, and loud possibility. Age offers pattern recognition, perspective, and the hard-won ability to choose what not to chase. Longfellow makes this palatable through a natural metaphor that feels almost scientific: the stars were always there, “invisible by day.” Nothing is added; perception changes. Twilight isn’t just a pretty scene, it’s a theory of human development: when the glare of ambition and novelty fades, subtler lights become legible.
Context sharpens the intent. Longfellow writes as a 19th-century poet in a culture obsessed with progress and industry, yet personally marked by grief and endurance. The tone is consoling, but not sentimental. It’s an aesthetic of late life as revelation: not consolation prizes, but a different sky.
Quote Details
| Topic | Aging |
|---|---|
| Source | Rejected source: Four American poets : $b William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wad... (Cody, Sherwin, 1959)EBook #76822
Evidence: said boys a path you must go to the poem itself to read about the aladdins cave they dug in the snow and the other things they did as night drew on says the poet we piled with care our nightly sta Other candidates (2) Porth Pathophysiology (Charlotte Pooler, 2009) compilation98.3% ... For age is opportunity no less than youth, itself, though in another dress. And as the evening twilight fades awa... Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) compilation79.3% heart shall cease to palpitate st 24 for age is opportunity no lessthan youth itself though in another dressand as th... |
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