Curfew I
Solemnly, mournfully,Dealing its dole,The Curfew BellIs beginning to toll.
Cover the embers,And put out the light;Toil comes with the morning,And rest with the night.
Dark grow the windows,And quenched is the fire;Sound fades into silence,--All footsteps retire.
No voice in the chambers,No sound in the hall!Sleep and oblivionReign over all!
Words in this poem
- curfew n.
- The ringing of an evening bell, originally a signal to the inhabitants to cover fires, extinguish lights, and retire to rest, -- instituted by William the Conqueror; also, the bell itself. [OE. courfew, curfu, fr. OF. cuevrefu, covrefeu, F. couvre-feu; covrir to cover + feu fire, fr. L. focus fireplace, hearth. See Cover, and Focus.]
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Curfew I 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, Curfew I, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/curfew-i.html, id L17545.
Form and metre
Curfew I is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.2 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 -A-A mournfully · doleA · bell · tollA
- 2 -A-A embers · lightA · morning · nightA
- 3 -A-A windows · fireA · silence · retireA
- 4 -A-A chambers · hallA · oblivion · allA
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Solemnly, mournfully, | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| Dealing its dole, | 4 | /˘·· |
| The Curfew Bell | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Is beginning to toll. | 6 | ·˘/˘·· |
| Cover the embers, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| And put out the light; | 5 | ····· |
| Toil comes with the morning, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And rest with the night. | 5 | ····· |
| Dark grow the windows, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And quenched is the fire; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Sound fades into silence,-- | 6 | ····/˘ |
| All footsteps retire. | 5 | ·/·˘/ |
| No voice in the chambers, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| No sound in the hall! | 5 | ····· |
| Sleep and oblivion | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| Reign over all! | 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.