Analysis of The Belfrey of Bruges
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
In the market-place of Bruges stands the belfrey old and brown;
Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o'er the town.
As the summer morn was breaking, on that lofty tower I stood,
And the world through off the darkness, like the weeds of widowhood.
Thick with towns and hamlets studded, and with streams and vapors gray,
Like a shield embossed with silver, round and vast the landscape lay.
At my feet the city slumbered. From its chimneys, here and there,
Wreathes of snow-white smoke, ascending, vanished, ghost-like, into the air.
Not a sound rose from the city at that early morning hour,
But I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower.
From their nests beneath the rafters sang the swollows wild and high;
And the world, beneath me sleeping, seemed more distant than the sky.
Then most musical and solemn, bringing back the olden times,
With their strange, unearthly changes rang the melancholy chimes,
Like the psalms from some old cloister, when the nuns sing in the choir;
And the great bell tolled among them, like the chanting of a friar.
Visions of the days departed, shadowy phantoms filled my brain;
They who live in history only seemed to walk the earth again;
All the foresters of Flanders,--mighty Baldwin Bras de Fer,
Lyderick du Bucq and Cressy, Philip, Guy du Dampierre.
I beheld the pageants splended that adorned those days of old;
Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bore the Fleece of Gold;
Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep-laden argosies;
Ministers from twenty nations; more than royal pomp and ease.
I beheld proud Maximilian, kneeling humbly on the ground;
I behed the gentle Mary, hunting with her hawk and hound;
And her lighted bridal-chamber, where a duke slept with the queen,
And the armèd guard around them, and the sword unsheathed between.
I beheld the flemish weavers, with Namur and Juliers bold,
Marching homeward from the bloody battle of the Spurs of Gold;
Saw the fight at Minnewater, saw the White Hoods moving west,
Saw great Artevelde victorious scale the Golden Dragon's nest.
And again the whiskered Spaniard all the land with terror smote;
And again the wild alarum sounded from the tocsin's throat;
Till the bells of Ghent resounded o'er lagoons and dike of sand,
"I am Roland! I am Roland! there is victory in the land!"
Then the sound of drums aroused me. The awakened city's roar
Chased the phantoms I had summoned back into their graves once more.
Hours had passed away like minutes; and before I was aware,
Lo! the shadow of the belfry crossed the sun-illumined square.
Scheme | AA BB CC DD EE FF GG EE XX EC HH GX II JJ HH KK BX LL MM DD |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 00101110101101 10101111101001 1010111011101011 0011101010111 111010100110101 10101110101011 11101011110101 1111101010110101 1011101011101010 1110111010001010 11101010101101 001011101110101 111000101010101 11101010101001 1011111010110010 0011101110101010 1010101010010111 1110100101110101 101001101010111 11101010111 1101011011111 101110101110111 1000101011101 100110101110101 11101001010101 11010101010101 001010101011101 00111011001101 110101011011 101010101010111 101111011101 11101001010101 00101101011101 001011101011 10111110010111 1110111011100001 101110110010101 101011101011111 1011011100011101 10110101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 2,578 |
Words | 442 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 20 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 51 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 102 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:13 min read
- 47 Views
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"The Belfrey of Bruges" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18818/the-belfrey-of-bruges>.
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