Analysis of The Ropewalk. (Birds Of Passage. Flight The First)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
In that building, long and low,
With its windows all a-row,
Like the port-holes of a hulk,
Human spiders spin and spin,
Backward down their threads so thin
Dropping, each a hempen bulk.
At the end, an open door;
Squares of sunshine on the floor
Light the long and dusky lane;
And the whirring of a wheel,
Dull and drowsy, makes me feel
All its spokes are in my brain.
As the spinners to the end
Downward go and reascend,
Gleam the long threads in the sun;
While within this brain of mine
Cobwebs brighter and more fine
By the busy wheel are spun.
Two fair maidens in a swing,
Like white doves upon the wing,
First before my vision pass;
Laughing, as their gentle hands
Closely clasp the twisted strands,
At their shadow on the grass.
Then a booth of mountebanks,
With its smell of tan and planks,
And a girl poised high in air
On a cord, in spangled dress,
With a faded loveliness,
And a weary look of care.
Then a homestead among farms,
And a woman with bare arms
Drawing water from a well;
As the bucket mounts apace,
With it mounts her own fair face,
As at some magician's spell.
Then an old man in a tower,
Ringing loud the noontide hour,
While the rope coils round and round
Like a serpent at his feet,
And again, in swift retreat,
Nearly lifts him from the ground.
Then within a prison-yard,
Faces fixed, and stern, and hard,
Laughter and indecent mirth;
Ah! it is the gallows-tree!
Breath of Christian charity,
Blow, and sweep it from the earth!
Then a school-boy, with his kite
Gleaming in a sky of light,
And an eager, upward look;
Steeds pursued through lane and field;
Fowlers with their snares concealed;
And an angler by a brook.
Ships rejoicing in the breeze,
Wrecks that float o'er unknown seas,
Anchors dragged through faithless sand;
Sea-fog drifting overhead,
And, with lessening line and lead,
Sailors feeling for the land.
All these scenes do I behold,
These, and many left untold,
In that building long and low;
While the wheel goes round and round,
With a drowsy, dreamy sound,
And the spinners backward go.
Scheme | Aabccb ddeffe gghiih jjkllk kxmxkm nnoppo qqrssr ttuvvu wwxyyx zz1 2 2 1 3 3 arra |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0110101 1110101 1011101 1010101 1011111 1010101 1011101 111101 101011 0010101 1010111 1111011 1010101 10101 1011001 1011111 110011 1010111 1110001 1110101 1011101 1011101 1010101 111101 10111 1111101 0011101 1010101 10101 0010111 101011 0010111 1010101 1010101 1110111 11111 11110010 1010110 1011101 1010111 0010101 1011101 1010101 1010101 1000101 1110101 1110100 1011101 1011111 1000111 0110101 1011101 111101 0110101 1010001 11110011 101111 1110101 01100101 1010101 1111101 1010101 0110101 1011101 1010101 0010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,982 |
Words | 371 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 66 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 144 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 1:52 min read
- 184 Views
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"The Ropewalk. (Birds Of Passage. Flight The First)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18908/the-ropewalk.-%28birds-of-passage.-flight-the-first%29>.
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