Which lines in the poem indicate its theme?
a shadow
by henry wadsworth longfellow
i said unto myself, if i were dead,
what would befall these children? what would be
their fate, who now are looking up to me
for and furtherance? their lives, i said,
would be a volume wherein i have read
but the first chapters, and no longer see
to read the rest of their dear history,
so full of beauty and so full of dread.
be comforted; the world is very old,
and generations pass, as they have passed,
a troop of shadows moving with the sun;
thousands of times has the old tale been told;
the world belongs to those who come the last,
they will find hope and strength as we have done.