Laurel · Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems

Annie of Tharaw

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) · 1839–1882

iambic tetrameter · octosyllabic couplets · 34 lines · from A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems

Annie of Tharaw, my true love of old,She is my life, and my goods, and my gold.

Annie of Tharaw, her heart once againTo me has surrendered in joy and in pain.

Annie of Tharaw, my riches, my good,Thou, O my soul, my flesh, and my blood!

Then come the wild weather, come sleet or come snow,We will stand by each other, however it blow.

Oppression, and sickness, and sorrow, and painShall be to our true love as links to the chain.

As the palm-tree standeth so straight and so tall,The more the hail beats, and the more the rains fall,--

So love in our hearts shall grow mighty and strong,Through crosses, through sorrows, through manifold wrong.

Shouldst thou be torn from me to wander aloneIn a desolate land where the sun is scarce known,--

Through forests I'll follow, and where the sea flows,Through ice, and through iron, through armies of foes,

Annie of Tharaw, my light and my sun,The threads of our two lives are woven in one.

Whate'er I have bidden thee thou hast obeyed,Whatever forbidden thou hast not gainsaid.

How in the turmoil of life can love stand,Where there is not one heart, and one mouth, and one hand?

Some seek for dissension, and trouble, and strife;Like a dog and a cat live such man and wife.

Annie of Tharaw, such is not our love;Thou art my lambkin, my chick, and my dove.

Whate'er my desire is, in thine may be seen;I am king of the household, and thou art its queen.

It is this, O my Annie, my heart's sweetest rest,That makes of us twain but one soul in one breast.

This turns to a heaven the hut where we dwell;While wrangling soon changes a home to a hell.

Words in this poem

sleet n.: The part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.
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,]
scarce a.: Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
hast: , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
turmoil v. t.: To harass with commotion; to disquiet; to worry.
strife n.: The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
twain a.: Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
dwell v. i.: To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Annie of Tharaw 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, Annie of Tharaw, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/annie-of-tharaw.html, id L26178.

Form and metre

Annie of Tharaw is 34 lines in 17 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.

See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.

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 AA old^A · gold^A
2 AA again^A · pain^A
3 AA good^A · blood^A
4 AA snow^A · blow^A
5 AA pain^A · chain^A
6 AA tall^A · fall^A
7 AA strong^A · wrong^A
8 AA alone^A · known^A
9 AA flows^A · foes^A
10 AA sun^A · one^A
11 AA obeyed^A · gainsaid^A
12 AA stand^A · hand^A
13 AA strife^A · wife^A
14 AA love^A · dove^A
15 AA seen^A · queen^A
16 AA rest^A · breast^A
17 AA dwell^A · hell^A

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. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
Annie of Tharaw, my true love of old,	10	/˘········
She is my life, and my goods, and my gold.	10	··········
Annie of Tharaw, her heart once again	10	/˘······˘/
To me has surrendered in joy and in pain.	11	···˘/˘·····
Annie of Tharaw, my riches, my good,	10	/˘····/˘··
Thou, O my soul, my flesh, and my blood!	9	·········
Then come the wild weather, come sleet or come snow,	11	····/˘·····
We will stand by each other, however it blow.	12	·····/˘·/˘··
Oppression, and sickness, and sorrow, and pain	11	˘/˘·/˘·/˘··
Shall be to our true love as links to the chain.	11	···/·······
As the palm-tree standeth so straight and so tall,	11	····/˘·····
The more the hail beats, and the more the rains fall,--	11	···········
So love in our hearts shall grow mighty and strong,	11	···/···/˘··
Through crosses, through sorrows, through manifold wrong.	11	·/˘·/˘·/˘··
Shouldst thou be torn from me to wander alone	11	·······/˘˘/
In a desolate land where the sun is scarce known,--	11	··/˘·······
Through forests I'll follow, and where the sea flows,	11	·/˘·/˘·····
Through ice, and through iron, through armies of foes,	11	····/˘·/˘··
Annie of Tharaw, my light and my sun,	10	/˘········
The threads of our two lives are woven in one.	11	···/···/˘··
Whate'er I have bidden thee thou hast obeyed,	12	˘˘/··/˘···˘/
Whatever forbidden thou hast not gainsaid.	11	·/˘/˘˘·····
How in the turmoil of life can love stand,	10	···/······
Where there is not one heart, and one mouth, and one hand?	12	············
Some seek for dissension, and trouble, and strife;	11	···˘/˘·/˘··
Like a dog and a cat live such man and wife.	11	···········
Annie of Tharaw, such is not our love;	11	/˘······/˘·
Thou art my lambkin, my chick, and my dove.	10	···/˘·····
Whate'er my desire is, in thine may be seen;	12	˘˘/·˘/······
I am king of the household, and thou art its queen.	12	·····/······
It is this, O my Annie, my heart's sweetest rest,	12	·····/˘··/˘·
That makes of us twain but one soul in one breast.	11	···········
This turns to a heaven the hut where we dwell;	11	····/˘·····
While wrangling soon changes a home to a hell.	11	·/˘·/˘·····

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.

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