Analysis of A Dutch Picture
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
Simon Danz has come home again,
From cruising about with his buccaneers;
He has singed the beard of the King of Spain,
And carried away the Dean of Jaen
And sold him in Algiers.
In his house by the Maese, with its roof of tiles,
And weathercocks flying aloft in air,
There are silver tankards of antique styles,
Plunder of convent and castle, and piles
Of carpets rich and rare.
In his tulip-garden there by the town,
Overlooking the sluggish stream,
With his Moorish cap and dressing-gown,
The old sea-captain, hale and brown,
Walks in a waking dream.
A smile in his gray mustachio lurks
Whenever he thinks of the King of Spain,
And the listed tulips look like Turks,
And the silent gardener as he works
Is changed to the Dean of Jaen.
The windmills on the outermost
Verge of the landscape in the haze,
To him are towers on the Spanish coast,
With whiskered sentinels at their post,
Though this is the river Maese.
But when the winter rains begin,
He sits and smokes by the blazing brands,
And old seafaring men come in,
Goat-bearded, gray, and with double chin,
And rings upon their hands.
They sit there in the shadow and shine
Of the flickering fire of the winter night;
Figures in color and design
Like those by Rembrandt of the Rhine,
Half darkness and half light.
And they talk of ventures lost or won,
And their talk is ever and ever the same,
While they drink the red wine of Tarragon,
From the cellars of some Spanish Don,
Or convent set on flame.
Restless at times with heavy strides
He paces his parlor to and fro;
He is like a ship that at anchor rides,
And swings with the rising and falling tides,
And tugs at her anchor-tow.
Voices mysterious far and near,
Sound of the wind and sound of the sea,
Are calling and whispering in his ear,
"Simon Danz! Why stayest thou here?
Come forth and follow me!"
So he thinks he shall take to the sea again
For one more cruise with his buccaneers,
To singe the beard of the King of Spain,
And capture another Dean of Jaen
And sell him in Algiers.
Scheme | ABCAD EFEEF GHGGH ICIIA JXJJX KLKKL MNMMN XOAXO PQPPQ XRSSR ABCAD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111101 110011101 1110110111 010010111 011001 01110111111 01100101 111011011 1011001001 110101 0110101101 1000101 111010101 01110101 100101 010110101 0101110111 001010111 0010100111 1110111 011010 1101001 1111010101 11100111 1110101 11010101 110110101 011110 110101101 010111 11100101 101001010101 10010001 1111101 110011 011110111 01111001001 11101111 101011101 110111 10111101 110110101 1110111101 0110100101 0110101 100100101 110101101 1100100011 1011111 110101 11111110101 11111101 110110111 010010111 011001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,976 |
Words | 382 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 55 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 143 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
Font size:
Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:54 min read
- 68 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"A Dutch Picture" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55599/a-dutch-picture>.
Discuss this Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In