Prelude - The Wayside Inn - Part First Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Prelude - The Wayside Inn - Part First Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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One Autumn night in Sudbury town	A
Across the meadows bare and brown	A
The windows of the wayside inn	B
Gleamed red with fire light through the leaves	C
Of woodbine hanging from the eaves	C
Their crimson curtains rent and thin	B
	-
As ancient is this hostelry	D
As any in the land may be	E
Built in the old Colonial day	F
When men lived in a grander way	F
With ampler hospitality	E
A kind of old Hobgoblin Hall	G
Now somewhat fallen to decay	F
With weather stains upon the wall	G
And stairways worn and crazy doors	H
And creaking and uneven floors	H
And chimneys huge and tiled and tall	G
	-
A region of repose it seems	I
A place of slumber and of dreams	I
Remote among the wooded hills	J
For there no noisy railway speeds	K
Its torch race scattering smoke and gleeds	K
But noon and night the panting teams	K
Stop under the great oaks that throw	D
Tangles of light and shade below	D
On roofs and doors and window sills	K
Across the road the barns display	F
Their lines of stalls their mows of hay	F
Through the wide doors the breezes blow	D
The wattled cocks strut to and fro	D
And half effaced by rain and shine	L
The Red Horse prances on the sign	L
Round this old fashioned quaint abode	M
Deep silence reigned save when a gust	N
Went rushing down the county road	M
And skeletons of leaves and dust	N
A moment quickened by its breath	O
Shuddered and danced their dance of death	O
And through the ancient oaks o'erhead	N
Mysterious voices moaned and fled	N
	-
But from the parlor of the inn	B
A pleasant murmur smote the ear	D
Like water rushing through a weir	D
Oft interrupted by the din	B
Of laughter and of loud applause	K
And in each intervening pause	K
The music of a violin	B
The fire light shedding over all	G
The splendor of its ruddy glow	D
Filled the whole parlor large and low	D
It gleamed on wainscot and on wall	G
It touched with more than wonted grace	K
Fair Princess Mary's pictured face	K
It bronzed the rafters overhead	N
On the old spinet's ivory keys	K
It played inaudible melodies	K
It crowned the sombre clock with flame	P
The hands the hours the maker's name	P
And painted with a livelier red	N
The Landlord's coat of arms again	Q
And flashing on the window pane	R
Emblazoned with its light and shade	N
The jovial rhymes that still remain	R
Writ near a century ago	D
By the great Major Molineaux	D
Whom Hawthorne has immortal made	N
	-
Before the blazing fire of wood	N
Erect the rapt musician stood	N
And ever and anon he bent	N
His head upon his instrument	N
And seemed to listen till he caught	N
Confessions of its secret thought	N
The joy the triumph the lament	N
The exultation and the pain	R
Then by the magic of his art	N
He soothed the throbbings of its heart	N
And lulled it into peace again	Q
	-
Around the fireside at their ease	K
There sat a group of friends entranced	N
With the delicious melodies	K
Who from the far off noisy town	A
Had to the wayside inn come down	A
To rest beneath its old oak trees	K
The fire light on their faces glanced	N
Their shadows on the wainscot danced	N
And though of different lands and speech	S
Each had his tale to tell and each	S
Was anxious to be pleased and please	K
And while the sweet musician plays	K
Let me in outline sketch them all	G
Perchance uncouthly as the blaze	K
With its uncertain touch portrays	K
Their shadowy semblance on the wall	G
	-
But first the Landlord will I trace	K
Grave in his aspect and attire	D
A man of ancient pedigree	E
A Justice of the Peace was he	E
Known in all Sudbury as The Squire	D
Proud was he of his name and race	K
Of old Sir William and Sir Hugh	T
And in the parlor full in view	T
His coat of arms well framed and glazed	N
Upon the wall in colors blazed	N
He beareth gules upon his shield	N
A chevron argent in the field	N
With three wolf's heads and for the crest	N
A Wyvern part per pale addressed	N
Upon a helmet barred below	D
The scroll reads By the name of Howe	U
And over this no longer bright	N
Though glimmering with a latent light	N
Was hung the sword his grandsire bore	D
In the rebellious days of yore	D
Down there at Concord in the fight	N
	-
A youth was there of quiet ways	K
A Student of old books and days	K
To whom all tongues and lands were known	V
And yet a lover of his own	V
With many a social virtue graced	N
And yet a friend of solitude	N
A man of such a genial mood	N
The heart of all things he embraced	N
And yet of such fastidious taste	N
He never found the best too good	N
Books were his passion and delight	N
And in his upper room at home	W
Stood many a rare and sumptuous tome	W
In vellum bound with gold bedight	N
Great volumes garmented in white	N
Recalling Florence Pisa Rome	W
He loved the twilight that surrounds	K
The border land of old romance	K
Where glitter hauberk helm and lance	K
And banner waves and trumpet sounds	K
And ladies ride with hawk on wrist	N
And mighty warriors sweep along	X
Magnified by the purple mist	N
The dusk of centuries and of song	X
The chronicles of Charlemagne	R
Of Merlin and the Mort d'Arthure	D
Mingled together in his brain	R
With tales of Flores and Blanchefleur	D
Sir Ferumbras Sir Eglamour	D
Sir Launcelot Sir Morgadour	D
Sir Guy Sir Bevis Sir Gawain	Y
	-
A young Sicilian too was there	D
In sight of Etna born and bred	N
Some breath of its volcanic air	D
Was glowing in his heart and brain	R
And being rebellious to his liege	Z
After Palermo's fatal siege	Z
Across the western seas he fled	N
In good King Bomba's happy reign	R
His face was like a summer night	N
All flooded with a dusky light	N
His hands were small his teeth shone white	N
As sea shells when he smiled or spoke	A2
His sinews supple and strong as oak	A2
Clean shaven was he as a priest	N
Who at the mass on Sunday sings	K
Save that upon his upper lip	B2
His beard a good palm's length least	N
Level and pointed at the tip	B2
Shot sideways like a swallow's wings	K
The poets read he o'er and o'er	D
And most of all the Immortal Four	D
Of Italy and next to those	K
The story telling bard of prose	K
Who wrote the joyous Tuscan tales	K
Of the Decameron that make	C2
Fiesole's green hills and vales	K
Remembered for Boccaccio's sake	C2
Much too of music was his thought	N
The melodies and measures fraught	N
With sunshine and the open air	D
Of vineyards and the singing sea	E
Of his beloved Sicily	E
And much it pleased him to peruse	K
The songs of the Sicilian muse	K
Bucolic songs by Meli sung	D2
In the familiar peasant tongue	D2
That made men say Behold once more	D
The pitying gods to earth restore	D
Theocritus of Syracuse	K
	-
A Spanish Jew from Alicant	N
With aspect grand and grave was there	D
Vender of silks and fabrics rare	D
And attar of rose from the Levant	N
Like an old Patriarch he appeared	N
Abraham or Isaac or at least	N
Some later Prophet or High Priest	N
With lustrous eyes and olive skin	B
And wildly tossed from cheeks and chin	B
The tumbling cataract of his beard	N
His garments breathed a spicy scent	N
Of cinnamon and sandal blent	N
Like the soft aromatic gales	K
That meet the mariner who sails	K
Through the Moluccas and the seas	K
That wash the shores of Celebes	K
All stories that recorded are	D
By Pierre Alphonse he knew by heart	N
And it was rumored he could say	K
The Parables of Sandabar	D
And all the Fables of Pilpay	B2
Or if not all the greater part	N
Well versed was he in Hebrew books	K
Talmud and Targum and the lore	D
Of Kabala and evermore	D
There was a mystery in his looks	K
His eyes seemed gazing far away	K
As if in vision or in trance	K
He heard the solemn sackbut play	K
And saw the Jewish maidens dance	K
	-
A Theologian from the school	E2
Of Cambridge on the Charles was there	D
Skilful alike with tongue and pen	Q
He preached to all men everywhere	D
The Gospel of the Golden Rule	E2
The New Commandment given to men	Q
Thinking the deed and not the creed	N
Would help us in our utmost need	N
With reverent feet the earth he trod	N
Nor banished nature from his plan	F2
But studied still with deep research	G2
To build the Universal Church	G2
Lofty as in the love of God	N
And ample as the wants of man	F2
	-
A Poet too was there whose verse	K
Was tender musical and terse	K
The inspiration the delight	N
The gleam the glory the swift flight	N
Of thoughts so sudden that they seem	H2
The revelations of a dream	H2
All these were his but with them came	P
No envy of another's fame	P
He did not find his sleep less sweet	N
For music in some neighboring street	N
Nor rustling hear in every breeze	K
The laurels of Miltiades	K
Honor and blessings on his head	N
While living good report when dead	N
Who not too eager for renown	A
Accepts but does not clutch the crown	A
	-
Last the Musician as he stood	N
Illumined by that fire of wood	N
Fair haired blue eyed his aspect blithe	I2
His figure tall and straight and lithe	I2
And every feature of his face	K
Revealing his Norwegian race	K
A radiance streaming from within	B
Around his eyes and forehead beamed	N
The Angel with the violin	B
Painted by Raphael he seemed	N
He lived in that ideal world	N
Whose language is not speech but song	X
Around him evermore the throng	X
Of elves and sprites their dances whirled	N
The Stromkarl sang the cataract hurled	N
Its headlong waters from the height	N
And mingled in the wild delight	N
The scream of sea birds in their flight	N
The rumor of the forest trees	K
The plunge of the implacable seas	K
The tumult of the wind at night	N
Voices of eld like trumpets blowing	J2
Old ballads and wild melodies	K
Through mist and darkness pouring forth	K2
Like Elivagar's river flowing	J2
Out of the glaciers of the North	K2
	-
The instrument on which he played	N
Was in Cremona's workshops made	N
By a great master of the past	N
Ere yet was lost the art divine	L
Fashioned of maple and of pine	L
That in Tyrolian forests vast	N
Had rocked and wrestled with the blast	N
Exquisite was it in design	L
Perfect in each minutest part	N
A marvel of the lutist's art	N
And in its hollow chamber thus	K
The maker from whose hands it came	P
Had written his unrivalled name	P
Antonius Stradivarius	K
	-
And when he played the atmosphere	D
Was filled with magic and the ear	D
Caught echoes of that Harp of Gold	N
Whose music had so weird a sound	N
The hunted stag forgot to bound	N
The leaping rivulet backward rolled	N
The birds came down from bush and tree	D
The dead came from beneath the sea	D
The maiden to the harper's knee	D
	-
The music ceased the applause was loud	N
The pleased musician smiled and bowed	N
The wood fire clapped its hands of flame	P
The shadows on the wainscot stirred	N
And from the harpsichord there came	P
A ghostly murmur of acclaim	P
A sound like that sent down at night	N
By birds of passage in their flight	N
From the remotest distance heard	N
	-
Then silence followed then began	F2
A clamor for the Landlord's tale	L2
The story promised them of old	N
They said but always left untold	N
And he although a bashful man	F2
And all his courage seemed to fail	L2
Finding excuse of no avail	L2
Yielded and thus the story ran	F2