Prelude - The Wayside Inn - Part First Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCB DEFFEGFGHHG IIJKKKDDKFFDDLLMNMNO ONN BDDBKKBGDDGKKNKKPPNQ RNRDDN NNNNNNNRNNQ KNKAAKNNSSKKGKKG KDEEDKTTNNNNNNDUNNDD N KKVVNNNNNNNWWNNWKKKK NXNXRDRDDDY DNDRZZNRNNNA2A2NKB2N B2KDDKKKC2KC2NNDEEKK D2D2DDK NDDNNNNBBNNNKKKKDNKD B2NKDDKKKKK E2DQDE2QNNNF2G2G2NF2 KKNNH2H2PPNNKKNNAA NNI2I2KKBNBNNXXNNNNN KKNJ2KK2J2K2 NNNLLNNLNNKPPK DDNNNNDDD NNPNPPNNN F2L2NNF2L2L2F2| 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 |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1)
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About Prelude - The Wayside Inn - Part First
Prelude - The Wayside Inn - Part First is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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