Analysis of The Hanging Of The Crane
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
The lights are out, and gone are all the guests
That thronging came with merriment and jests
To celebrate the Hanging of the Crane
In the new house,--into the night are gone;
But still the fire upon the hearth burns on,
And I alone remain.
O fortunate, O happy day,
When a new household finds its place
Among the myriad homes of earth,
Like a new star just sprung to birth,
And rolled on its harmonious way
Into the boundless realms of space!
So said the guests in speech and song,
As in the chimney, burning bright,
We hung the iron crane to-night,
And merry was the feast and long.
And now I sit and muse on what may be,
And in my vision see, or seem to see,
Through floating vapors interfused with light,
Shapes indeterminate, that gleam and fade,
As shadows passing into deeper shade
Sink and elude the sight.
For two alone, there in the hall,
As spread the table round and small;
Upon the polished silver shine
The evening lamps, but, more divine,
The light of love shines over all;
Of love, that says not mine and thine,
But ours, for ours is thine and mine.
They want no guests, to come between
Their tender glances like a screen,
And tell them tales of land and sea,
And whatsoever may betide
The great, forgotten world outside;
They want no guests; they needs must be
Each other's own best company.
The picture fades; as at a village fair
A showman's views, dissolving into air,
Again appear transfigured on the screen,
So in my fancy this; and now once more,
In part transfigured, through the open door
Appears the selfsame scene.
Seated, I see the two again,
But not alone; they entertain
A little angel unaware,
With face as round as is the moon;
A royal guest with flaxen hair,
Who, throned upon his lofty chair,
Drums on the table with his spoon,
Then drops it careless on the floor,
To grasp at things unseen before.
Are these celestial manners? these
The ways that win, the arts that please?
Ah yes; consider well the guest,
And whatsoe'er he does seems best;
He ruleth by the right divine
Of helplessness, so lately born
In purple chambers of the morn,
As sovereign over thee and thine.
He speaketh not; and yet there lies
A conversation in his eyes;
The golden silence of the Greek,
The gravest wisdom of the wise,
Not spoken in language, but in looks
More legible than printed books,
As if he could but would not speak.
And now, O monarch absolute,
Thy power is put to proof; for, lo!
Resistless, fathomless, and slow,
The nurse comes rustling like the sea,
And pushes back thy chair and thee,
And so good night to King Canute.
As one who walking in a forest sees
A lovely landscape through the parted frees,
Then sees it not, for boughs that intervene
Or as we see the moon sometimes revealed
Through drifting clouds, and then again concealed,
So I behold the scene.
There are two guests at table now;
The king, deposed and older grown,
No longer occupies the throne,--
The crown is on his sister's brow;
A Princess from the Fairy Isles,
The very pattern girl of girls.
All covered and embowered in curls,
Rose-tinted from the Isle of Flowers,
And sailing with soft, silken sails
From far-off Dreamland into ours.
Above their bowls with rims of blue
Four azure eyes of deeper hue
Are looking, dreamy with delight;
Limpid as planets that emerge
Above the ocean's rounded verge,
Soft-shining through the summer night.
Steadfast they gaze, yet nothing see
Beyond the horizon of their bowls;
Nor care they for the world that rolls
With all its freight of troubled souls
Into the days that are to be.
Again the tossing boughs shut out the scene,
Again the drifting vapors intervene,
And the moon's pallid disk is hidden quite;
And now I see the table wider grown,
As round a pebble into water thrown
Dilates a ring of light.
I see the table wider grown,
I see it garlanded with guests,
As if fair Ariadne's Crown
Out of the sky had fallen down;
Maidens within whose tender breasts
A thousand restless hopes and fears,
Forth reaching to the coming years,
Flutter awhile, then quiet lie
Like timid birds that fain would fly,
But do not dare to leave their nests;--
And youths, who in their strength elate
Challenge the van and front of fate,
Eager
Scheme | AABXXB CDEECD FGGF HHGIIG JJKKJKK LLHMMHH NNLOOL XBNPNNPOO QQRRKSSKTTUTVVUXWWHHC QQLXXL YZZYX1 1 2 X2 3 3 G4 4 GH5 5 5 H LLGZZG ZA6 6 A7 7 8 8 A9 9 X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111011101 1111101 110010101 0011010111 11010010111 010101 11001101 1011111 010100111 10111111 011101001 01010111 11010101 10010101 11010111 01010101 0111011111 0011011111 11010111 101001101 111001101 100101 11011001 11010101 01010101 01011101 01111101 11111101 1101101101 11111101 11010101 01111101 0010101 01010111 11111111 11011100 0101110101 011010011 01011101 1011010111 01110101 01011 10110101 1101101 0101001 11111101 0101111 11011101 11010111 11110101 11110101 11010101 01110111 11010101 011111 1110101 11001101 01010101 11010101 1110111 0010011 01010101 01010101 110010101 11001101 11111111 011110 110111111 1101 01110101 01011101 0111111 1111000101 010110101 111111101 1111010101 1101010101 110101 11111101 01010101 1101001 01111101 01010101 01010111 1100101 110101110 01011101 11110110 01111111 11011101 11010101 1110101 01010101 11010101 1111101 010010111 11110111 11111101 01011111 0101011101 010101001 0011011101 0111010101 1101001101 10111 11010101 111111 11111 11011101 10011101 01010101 11010101 10011101 11011111 11111111 01101101 10010111 10 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 4,172 |
Words | 762 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 4, 6, 7, 7, 6, 9, 21, 6, 21, 6, 13 |
Lines Amount | 118 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 251 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 3:50 min read
- 119 Views
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"The Hanging Of The Crane" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18871/the-hanging-of-the-crane>.
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