Analysis of The Three Kings
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
Three Kings came riding from far away,
Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar;
Three Wise Men out of the East were they,
And they travelled by night and they slept by day,
For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star.
The star was so beautiful, large, and clear,
That all the other stars of the sky
Became a white mist in the atmosphere,
And by this they knew that the coming was near
Of the Prince foretold in the prophecy.
Three caskets they bore on their saddle-bows,
Three caskets of gold with golden keys;
Their robes were of crimson silk with rows
Of bells and pomegranates and furbelows,
Their turbans like blossoming almond-trees.
And so the Three Kings rode into the West,
Through the dusk of night, over hill and dell,
And sometimes they nodded with beard on breast
And sometimes talked, as they paused to rest,
With the people they met at some wayside well.
"Of the child that is born," said Baltasar,
"Good people, I pray you, tell us the news;
For we in the East have seen his star,
And have ridden fast, and have ridden far,
To find and worship the King of the Jews."
And the people answered, "You ask in vain;
We know of no king but Herod the Great!"
They thought the Wise Men were men insane,
As they spurred their horses across the plain,
Like riders in haste, and who cannot wait.
And when they came to Jerusalem,
Herod the Great, who had heard this thing,
Sent for the Wise Men and questioned them;
And said, "Go down unto Bethlehem,
And bring me tidings of this new king."
So they rode away; and the star stood still,
The only one in the gray of morn
Yes, it stopped, it stood still of its own free will,
Right over Bethlehem on the hill,
The city of David where Christ was born.
And the Three Kings rode through the gate and the guard,
Through the silent street, till their horses turned
And neighed as they entered the great inn-yard;
But the windows were closed, and the doors were barred,
And only a light in the stable burned.
And cradled there in the scented hay,
In the air made sweet by the breath of kine,
The little child in the manger lay,
The child, that would be king one day
Of a kingdom not human but divine.
His mother Mary of Nazareth
Sat watching beside his place of rest,
Watching the even flow of his breath,
For the joy of life and the terror of death
Were mingled together in her breast.
They laid their offerings at his feet:
The gold was their tribute to a King,
The frankincense, with its odor sweet,
Was for the Priest, the Paraclete,
The myrrh for the body's burying.
And the mother wondered and bowed her head,
And sat as still as a statue of stone;
Her heart was troubled yet comforted,
Remembering what the Angel had said
Of an endless reign and of David's throne.
Then the Kings rode out of the city gate,
With a clatter of hoofs in proud array;
But they went not back to Herod the Great,
For they knew his malice and feared his hate,
And returned to their homes by another way.
Scheme | ABAAB BXBBC XDXCD EFEEF BGBBG HIHHI XJKKJ LMLLM NONNO AHAAX XEPPE QJQEJ RSXRS IAIIA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (26%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 111101101 01001001 111110101 01101101111 111101001001 0111100101 110101101 010110010 01111101011 1010100100 1101111101 110111101 110110111 110101 1101100101 0101110101 1011110101 0011101111 001111111 1010111111 10111111 1101111101 110011111 0110101101 1101001101 0010101101 1111111001 110110101 1111100101 1100101101 011110100 100111111 110110101 01111010 011101111 1110100111 010100111 11111111111 11010101 0101101111 00111101001 1010111101 0111100111 10100100101 0100100101 01100101 0011110111 010100101 01111111 1010110101 110101100 110011111 100101111 10111001011 010010001 111100111 011110101 01011101 110101 011010100 0010100101 011110111 011101100 0100101011 1110101101 1011110101 1010110101 1111111001 1111100111 00111110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,879 |
Words | 555 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 70 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 163 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 2:46 min read
- 163 Views
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