Analysis of The Castle-Builder. (Birds Of Passage. Flight The Third)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)



A gentle boy, with soft and silken locks,
A dreamy boy, with brown and tender eyes,
A castle-builder, with his wooden blocks,
And towers that touch imaginary skies.

A fearless rider on his father's knee,
An eager listener unto stories told
At the Round Table of the nursery,
Of heroes and adventures manifold.

There will be other towers for thee to build;
There will be other steeds for thee to ride;
There will be other legends, and all filled
With greater marvels and more glorified.

Build on, and make thy castles high and fair,
Rising and reaching upward to the skies;
Listen to voices in the upper air,
Nor lose thy simple faith in mysteries.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GBGX
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 0101110101 0101110101 0101011101 0101101001 0101011101 11010010101 1011010100 110001010 11110101111 1111011111 1111010011 110100110 1101110101 1001010101 1011000101 1111010100
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 643
Words 117
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 128
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
103

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. more…

All Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poems | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Books

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