The Song of Hiawatha

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

For a stranger, whom we know not!

Like a fire upon the hearth-stone

Is a neighbor’s homely daughter,

Like the starlight or the moonlight

Is the handsomest of strangers!”

Thus dissuading spake Nokomis,

And my Hiawatha answered

Only this: “Dear old Nokomis,

Very pleasant is the firelight,

But I like the starlight better,