A Room in the Farm-House
URSULA.Darker and darker! Hardly a glimmerOf light comes in at the window-pane;Or is it my eyes are growing dimmer?I cannot disentangle this skein,Nor wind it rightly upon the reel.Elsie!
GOTTLIER, starting.The stopping of thy wheelHas awakened me out of a pleasant dream.I thought I was sitting beside a stream,And heard the grinding of a mill,When suddenly the wheels stood still,And a voice cried "Elsie," in my ear!It startled me, it seemed so near.
URSULA.I was calling her: I want a light.I cannot see to spin my flax.Bring the lamp, Elsie. Dost thou hear?
ELSIE, within.In a moment!
GOTTLIEB.Where are Bertha and Max?
URSULA.They are sitting with Elsie at the door.She is telling them stories of the wood,And the Wolf, and little Red Ridinghood.
GOTTLIEB.And where is the Prince?
URSULA.In his room overhead;I heard him walking across the floor,As he always does, with a heavy tread.
Words in this poem
- ursula n.
- A beautiful North American butterfly (Basilarchia, or Limenitis, astyanax). Its wings are nearly black with red and blue spots and blotches. Called also red-spotted purple.
- rightly adv.
- Straightly; directly; in front. [AS. richtlice.]
- bertha n.
- A kind of collar or cape worn by ladies. [F. berthe, fr. Berthe, a woman's name.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Room in the Farm-House is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Room in the Farm-House, in Christus: A Mystery (1872), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-christus/a-room-in-the-farm-house.html, id L19195.
Form and metre
A Room in the Farm-House is 33 lines in 8 stanzas.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -ABAB-- ursula · glimmerA · paneB · dimmerA · skeinB · reel · elsie
- 2 --AABBCC starting · wheel · dreamA · streamA · millB · stillB · earC · nearC
- 6 --AA ursula · door · woodA · ridinghoodA
- 8 -A-A ursula · overheadA · floor · treadA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| URSULA. | 3 | /˘˘ |
| Darker and darker! Hardly a glimmer | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Of light comes in at the window-pane; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Or is it my eyes are growing dimmer? | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| I cannot disentangle this skein, | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘·· |
| Nor wind it rightly upon the reel. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Elsie! | 2 | /˘ |
| GOTTLIER, starting. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| The stopping of thy wheel | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Has awakened me out of a pleasant dream. | 11 | ·˘/˘····/˘· |
| I thought I was sitting beside a stream, | 10 | ····/˘·/·· |
| And heard the grinding of a mill, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| When suddenly the wheels stood still, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| And a voice cried "Elsie," in my ear! | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| It startled me, it seemed so near. | 10 | ·/˘˘···˘·· |
| URSULA. | 3 | /˘˘ |
| I was calling her: I want a light. | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| I cannot see to spin my flax. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Bring the lamp, Elsie. Dost thou hear? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| ELSIE, within. | 4 | /˘·· |
| In a moment! | 4 | ··/˘ |
| GOTTLIEB. | 2 | /· |
| Where are Bertha and Max? | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| URSULA. | 3 | /˘˘ |
| They are sitting with Elsie at the door. | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| She is telling them stories of the wood, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| And the Wolf, and little Red Ridinghood. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| GOTTLIEB. | 2 | /· |
| And where is the Prince? | 5 | ····· |
| URSULA. | 3 | /˘˘ |
| In his room overhead; | 6 | ···/˘/ |
| I heard him walking across the floor, | 9 | ···/˘˘/·· |
| As he always does, with a heavy tread. | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.