Farmer
The Meeting-house is full. I never sawSo great a crowd before.
No matter. Come.We shall find room enough by elbowingOur way among them. Put your shoulder to it.
There were not half so many at the trialOf Goodwife Bishop.
Keep close after me.I'll find a place for you. They'll want me there.I am a friend of Corey's, as you know,And he can't do without me just at present.
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,]
- goodwife n.
- The mistress of a house. Robynson (More's Utopia).
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Farmer 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, Farmer, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/farmer.html, id L17981.
Form and metre
Farmer is 11 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Meeting-house is full. I never saw | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| So great a crowd before. | 6 | ······ |
| No matter. Come. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| We shall find room enough by elbowing | 10 | ····˘/·/·˘ |
| Our way among them. Put your shoulder to it. | 11 | /······/˘·· |
| There were not half so many at the trial | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Of Goodwife Bishop. | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Keep close after me. | 5 | ····· |
| I'll find a place for you. They'll want me there. | 10 | ·········· |
| I am a friend of Corey's, as you know, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And he can't do without me just at present. | 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.