At La Chaudeau
At La Chaudeau,--'t is long since then:I was young,--my years twice ten;All things smiled on the happy boy,Dreams of love and songs of joy,Azure of heaven and wave below,At La Chaudeau.
At La Chaudeau I come back old:My head is gray, my blood is cold;Seeking along the meadow ooze,Seeking beside the river Seymouse,The days of my spring-time of long agoAt La Chaudeau.
At La Chaudeau nor heart nor brainEver grows old with grief and pain;A sweet remembrance keeps off age;A tender friendship doth still assuageThe burden of sorrow that one may knowAt La Chaudeau.
At La Chaudeau, had fate decreedTo limit the wandering life I lead,Peradventure I still, forsooth,Should have preserved my fresh green youth,Under the shadows the hill-tops throwAt La Chaudeau.
At La Chaudeau, live on, my friends,Happy to be where God intends;And sometimes, by the evening fire,Think of him whose sole desireIs again to sit in the old chateauAt La Chaudeau.
Words in this poem
- forsooth v. t.
- To address respectfully with the term forsooth.
- chateau n.
- A castle or a fortress in France. [F. château a castle. See Castle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At La Chaudeau 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, At La Chaudeau, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/at-la-chaudeau.html, id L26185.
Form and metre
At La Chaudeau is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See 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 AABBCC thenA · tenA · boyB · joyB · belowC · chaudeauC
- 2 AABBCC oldA · coldA · oozeB · seymouseB · agoC · chaudeauC
- 3 AABBCC brainA · painA · ageB · assuageB · knowC · chaudeauC
- 4 AABBCC decreedA · leadA · forsoothB · youthB · throwC · chaudeauC
- 5 AABBCC friendsA · intendsA · fireB · desireB · chateauC · chaudeauC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| At La Chaudeau,--'t is long since then: | 9 | ········· |
| I was young,--my years twice ten; | 7 | ······· |
| All things smiled on the happy boy, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Dreams of love and songs of joy, | 7 | ······· |
| Azure of heaven and wave below, | 8 | /˘·/···· |
| At La Chaudeau. | 4 | ···· |
| At La Chaudeau I come back old: | 8 | ········ |
| My head is gray, my blood is cold; | 8 | ········ |
| Seeking along the meadow ooze, | 8 | /˘˘/·/·· |
| Seeking beside the river Seymouse, | 9 | /˘˘/·/˘·· |
| The days of my spring-time of long ago | 10 | ········˘/ |
| At La Chaudeau. | 4 | ···· |
| At La Chaudeau nor heart nor brain | 8 | ········ |
| Ever grows old with grief and pain; | 8 | /˘······ |
| A sweet remembrance keeps off age; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| A tender friendship doth still assuage | 9 | ·/˘/˘··˘/ |
| The burden of sorrow that one may know | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| At La Chaudeau. | 4 | ···· |
| At La Chaudeau, had fate decreed | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To limit the wandering life I lead, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| Peradventure I still, forsooth, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Should have preserved my fresh green youth, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Under the shadows the hill-tops throw | 9 | ···/····· |
| At La Chaudeau. | 4 | ···· |
| At La Chaudeau, live on, my friends, | 8 | ········ |
| Happy to be where God intends; | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| And sometimes, by the evening fire, | 9 | ·/···/˘/˘ |
| Think of him whose sole desire | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Is again to sit in the old chateau | 10 | ·˘/·····˘/ |
| At La Chaudeau. | 4 | ···· |
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.