Analysis of Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 2. Interlude III.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
'What was the end? I am ashamed
Not to remember Reynard's fate;
I have not read the book of late;
Was he not hanged?' the Poet said.
The Student gravely shook his head,
And answered: 'You exaggerate.
There was a tournament proclaimed,
And Reynard fought with Isegrim
The Wolf, and having vanquished him,
Rose to high honor in the State,
And Keeper of the Seals was named!'
At this the gay Sicilian laughed:
'Fight fire with fire, and craft with craft;
Successful cunning seems to be
The moral of your tale,' said he.
'Mine had a better, and the Jew's
Had none at all, that I could see;
His aim was only to amuse.'
Meanwhile from out its ebon case
His violin the Minstrel drew,
And having tuned its strings anew,
Now held it close in his embrace,
And poising in his outstretched hand
The bow, like a magician's wand,
He paused, and said, with beaming face:
'Last night my story was too long;
To-day I give you but a song,
An old tradition of the North;
But first, to put you in the mood,
I will a little while prelude,
And from this instrument draw forth
Something by way of overture.'
He played; at first the tones were pure
And tender as a summer night,
The full moon climbing to her height,
The sob and ripple of the seas,
The flapping of an idle sail;
And then by sudden and sharp degrees
The multiplied, wild harmonies
Freshened and burst into a gale;
A tempest howling through the dark,
A crash as of some shipwrecked bark.
A loud and melancholy wail.
Such was the prelude to the tale
Told by the Minstrel; and at times
He paused amid its varying rhymes,
And at each pause again broke in
The music of his violin,
With tones of sweetness or of fear,
Movements of trouble or of calm,
Creating their own atmosphere;
As sitting in a church we hear
Between the verses of the psalm
The organ playing soft and clear,
Or thundering on the startled ear.
Scheme | ABBCCBADDBAEEFFGFG GHHGXXGIIJKKJX XLLGMGGMNNM MGGOOPDPQDPQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11011101 1101011 11110111 11110101 01010111 0101010 11010001 010111 01010101 11110001 01010111 110101001 1101100111 01010111 01011111 11010001 11111111 11110101 111111 10010101 01011101 11110101 0101011 011011 11011101 11110111 11111101 11010101 11111001 1101011 01110011 10111100 11110101 01010101 01110101 01010101 01011101 011100101 0101100 10010101 01010101 0111111 0101001 1101101 11010011 110111001 01110110 01011001 11110111 10110111 0101110 11000111 01010101 01010101 110010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,803 |
Words | 352 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 18, 14, 11, 12 |
Lines Amount | 55 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 359 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 86 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:45 min read
- 129 Views
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"Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 2. Interlude III." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18777/tales-of-a-wayside-inn-%3A-part-2.-interlude-iii.>.
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