Blessed Are the Dead
Oh, how blest are ye whose toils are ended!Who, through death, have unto God ascended!Ye have arisenFrom the cares which keep us still in prison.
We are still as in a dungeon living,Still oppressed with sorrow and misgiving;Our undertakingsAre but toils, and troubles, and heart-breakings.
Ye meanwhile, are in your chambers sleeping,Quiet, and set free from all our weeping;No cross nor trialHinders your enjoyments with denial.
Christ has wiped away your tears for ever;Ye have that for which we still endeavor.To you are chantedSongs which yet no mortal ear have haunted.
Ah! who would not, then, depart with gladness,To inherit heaven for earthly sadness?Who here would languishLonger in bewailing and in anguish?
Come, O Christ, and loose the chains that bind us!Lead us forth, and cast this world behind us!With Thee, the Anointed,Finds the soul its joy and rest appointed.
Words in this poem
- dungeon n.
- A close, dark prison, commondonjon or keep of a castle, these being used as prisons. [OE. donjoun highest tower of a castle, tower, prison, F. donjon tower or platform in the midst of a castle, turret, or closet on the top of a house, a keep of a]
- misgiving n.
- Evil premonition; doubt; distrust.
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- bewailing a.
- Wailing over; lamenting.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Blessed Are the Dead 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, Blessed Are the Dead, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/blessed-are-the-dead.html, id L26182.
Form and metre
Blessed Are the Dead is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. 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 AABB endedA · ascendedA · arisenB · prisonB
- 2 AABB livingA · misgivingA · undertakingsB · breakingsB
- 3 AABB sleepingA · weepingA · trialB · denialB
- 4 AA-- everA · endeavorA · chanted · haunted
- 5 AABB gladnessA · sadnessA · languishB · anguishB
- 6 AABB usA · usA · anointedB · appointedB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, how blest are ye whose toils are ended! | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Who, through death, have unto God ascended! | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Ye have arisen | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| From the cares which keep us still in prison. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| We are still as in a dungeon living, | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| Still oppressed with sorrow and misgiving; | 10 | ·˘/·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Our undertakings | 6 | /˘/˘·˘ |
| Are but toils, and troubles, and heart-breakings. | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Ye meanwhile, are in your chambers sleeping, | 10 | ·/····/˘/˘ |
| Quiet, and set free from all our weeping; | 11 | /˘·····/˘/˘ |
| No cross nor trial | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Hinders your enjoyments with denial. | 10 | /˘·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Christ has wiped away your tears for ever; | 10 | ···˘/···/˘ |
| Ye have that for which we still endeavor. | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| To you are chanted | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Songs which yet no mortal ear have haunted. | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Ah! who would not, then, depart with gladness, | 10 | ·····˘/·/˘ |
| To inherit heaven for earthly sadness? | 11 | ·˘/˘/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Who here would languish | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Longer in bewailing and in anguish? | 10 | /˘·˘/˘··/˘ |
| Come, O Christ, and loose the chains that bind us! | 10 | ·········· |
| Lead us forth, and cast this world behind us! | 10 | ·········· |
| With Thee, the Anointed, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Finds the soul its joy and rest appointed. | 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.