The Ropewalk Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCB DDEFFE GGHIIH JJKLLK KKMKKM KKNKKN OOGGGG GGPQQP GGRGGR KKGGGG GGAGGA| In that building long and low | A |
| With its windows all a row | A |
| Like the port holes of a hulk | B |
| Human spiders spin and spin | C |
| Backward down their threads so thin | C |
| Dropping each a hempen bulk | B |
| - | |
| At the end an open door | D |
| Squares of sunshine on the floor | D |
| Light the long and dusky lane | E |
| And the whirring of a wheel | F |
| Dull and drowsy makes me feel | F |
| All its spokes are in my brain | E |
| - | |
| As the spinners to the end | G |
| Downward go and reascend | G |
| Gleam the long threads in the sun | H |
| While within this brain of mine | I |
| Cobwebs brighter and more fine | I |
| By the busy wheel are spun | H |
| - | |
| Two fair maidens in a swing | J |
| Like white doves upon the wing | J |
| First before my vision pass | K |
| Laughing as their gentle hands | L |
| Closely clasp the twisted strands | L |
| At their shadow on the grass | K |
| - | |
| Then a booth of mountebanks | K |
| With its smell of tan and planks | K |
| And a girl poised high in air | M |
| On a cord in spangled dress | K |
| With a faded loveliness | K |
| And a weary look of care | M |
| - | |
| Then a homestead among farms | K |
| And a woman with bare arms | K |
| Drawing water from a well | N |
| As the bucket mounts apace | K |
| With it mounts her own fair face | K |
| As at some magician's spell | N |
| - | |
| Then an old man in a tower | O |
| Ringing loud the noontide hour | O |
| While the rope coils round and round | G |
| Like a serpent at his feet | G |
| And again in swift retreat | G |
| Nearly lifts him from the ground | G |
| - | |
| Then within a prison yard | G |
| Faces fixed and stern and hard | G |
| Laughter and indecent mirth | P |
| Ah it is the gallows tree | Q |
| Breath of Christian charity | Q |
| Blow and sweep it from the earth | P |
| - | |
| Then a school boy with his kite | G |
| Gleaming in a sky of light | G |
| And an eager upward look | R |
| Steeds pursued through lane and field | G |
| Fowlers with their snares concealed | G |
| And an angler by a brook | R |
| - | |
| Ships rejoicing in the breeze | K |
| Wrecks that float o'er unknown seas | K |
| Anchors dragged through faithless sand | G |
| Sea fog drifting overhead | G |
| And with lessening line and lead | G |
| Sailors feeling for the land | G |
| - | |
| All these scenes do I behold | G |
| These and many left untold | G |
| In that building long and low | A |
| While the wheel goes round and round | G |
| With a drowsy dreamy sound | G |
| And the spinners backward go | A |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Ropewalk poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Best Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow