Analysis of By The Fireside : The Builders
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.
Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.
For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.
Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.
In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.
Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.
Else our lives are incomplete,
Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet
Stumble as they seek to climb.
Build to-day, then, strong and sure,
With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall to-morrow find its place.
Thus alone can we attain
To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KHKH LBLB MNMN OPOP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 111011 1001111 1110101 1110011 1010111 1101111 0111101 1000101 1010111 11101001 1011010 1011111 1010101 1110101 1101111 1110101 0010111 1011101 1100011 101110 11110111 1001001 1011111 10001001 11011001 1001111 101101 1011111 1111101 1010101 0010001 1110111 1011101 1110101 1011111 0110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,102 |
Words | 202 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 98 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 115 Views
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"By The Fireside : The Builders" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18528/by-the-fireside-%3A-the-builders>.
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