Act V: Scene Iii— A Street in the Village. Enter Gloyd and Others
GLOYD.Quick, or we shall be late!
A MAN.That's not the way.Come here; come up this lane.
GLOYD.I wonder nowIf the old man will die, and will not speak?He's obstinate enough and tough enoughFor anything on earth.
A MAN.The passing bell. He's dead!
GLOYD.We are too late.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act V: Scene Iii— A Street in the Village. Enter Gloyd and Others 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, Act V: Scene Iii— A Street in the Village. Enter Gloyd and Others, in Christus: A Mystery (1872), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-christus/act-v-scene-iii-a-street-in-the-village-enter-gloyd-and-othe.html, id L19248.
Form and metre
Act V: Scene Iii— A Street in the Village. Enter Gloyd and Others is 14 lines in 5 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| GLOYD. | 1 | · |
| Quick, or we shall be late! | 6 | ······ |
| A MAN. | 2 | ·· |
| That's not the way. | 4 | ···· |
| Come here; come up this lane. | 6 | ······ |
| GLOYD. | 1 | · |
| I wonder now | 4 | ·/˘· |
| If the old man will die, and will not speak? | 10 | ·········· |
| He's obstinate enough and tough enough | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/··˘/ |
| For anything on earth. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A MAN. | 2 | ·· |
| The passing bell. He's dead! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| GLOYD. | 1 | · |
| We are too late. | 4 | ···· |
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