The Chamber Over The Gate
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
Is it so far from thee
Thou canst no longer see,
In the Chamber over the Gate,
That old man desolate,
Weeping and wailing sore
For his son, who is no more?
O Absalom, my son!
Is it so long ago
That cry of human woe
From the walled city came,
Calling on his dear name,
That it has died away
In the distance of to-day?
O Absalom, my son!
There is no far or near,
There is neither there nor here,
There is neither soon nor late,
In that Chamber over the Gate,
Nor any long ago
To that cry of human woe,
O Absalom, my son!
From the ages that are past
The voice sounds like a blast,
Over seas that wreck and drown,
Over tumult of traffic and town;
And from ages yet to be
Come the echoes back to me,
O Absalom, my son!
Somewhere at every hour
The watchman on the tower
Looks forth, and sees the fleet
Approach of the hurrying feet
Of messengers, that bear
The tidings of despair.
O Absalom, my son!
He goes forth from the door
Who shall return no more.
With him our joy departs;
The light goes out in our hearts;
In the Chamber over the Gate
We sit disconsolate.
O Absalom, my son!
That 't is a common grief
Bringeth but slight relief;
Ours is the bitterest loss,
Ours is the heaviest cross;
And forever the cry will be
'Would God I had died for thee,
O Absalom, my son!'
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 06, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 98 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | aaBxccD eeffggD xxbbeeD hhiiaaD jjkkllD ccmmBbD nnooaaD |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,232 |
Words | 256 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 |
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"The Chamber Over The Gate" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/18835/the-chamber-over-the-gate>.
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