Interlude
He ended: and a kind of spellUpon the silent listeners fell.His solemn manner and his wordsHad touched the deep, mysterious chords,That vibrate in each human breastAlike, but not alike confessed.The spiritual world seemed near;And close above them, full of fear,Its awful adumbration passed,A luminous shadow, vague and vast.They almost feared to look, lest there,Embodied from the impalpable air,They might behold the Angel stand,Holding the sword in his right hand.
At last, but in a voice subdued,Not to disturb their dreamy mood,Said the Sicilian: “While you spoke,Telling your legend marvellous,Suddenly in my memory wokeThe thought of one, now gone from us,—An old Abate, meek and mild,My friend and teacher, when a child,Who sometimes in those days of oldThe legend of an Angel told,Which ran, as I remember, thus.”
Words in this poem
- adumbration n.
- The act of adumbrating, or shadowing forth. [L. adumbratio.]
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- sicilian a.
- Of or pertaining to Sicily or its inhabitants. Sicilian vespers, the great massacre of the French in Sicily, in the year 1282, on the evening of Easter Monday, at the hour of vespers.
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Interlude 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, Interlude, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/interlude-3.html, id L17650.
Form and metre
Interlude is 25 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 72% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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--BBCCDDEEFF spellA · fellA · words · chords · breastB · confessedB · nearC · fearC · passedD · vastD · thereE · airE · standF · handF
- 2 AAB-BCDDEEC subduedA · moodA · spokeB · marvellous · wokeB · usC · mildD · childD · oldE · toldE · thusC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| He ended: and a kind of spell | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Upon the silent listeners fell. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| His solemn manner and his words | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Had touched the deep, mysterious chords, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| That vibrate in each human breast | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Alike, but not alike confessed. | 8 | ˘/··˘/˘/ |
| The spiritual world seemed near; | 8 | ·/˘˘˘··· |
| And close above them, full of fear, | 8 | ········ |
| Its awful adumbration passed, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A luminous shadow, vague and vast. | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| They almost feared to look, lest there, | 8 | ·/······ |
| Embodied from the impalpable air, | 10 | ˘/˘··˘/˘˘· |
| They might behold the Angel stand, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Holding the sword in his right hand. | 8 | /˘······ |
| At last, but in a voice subdued, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Not to disturb their dreamy mood, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Said the Sicilian: “While you spoke, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Telling your legend marvellous, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Suddenly in my memory woke | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| The thought of one, now gone from us,— | 8 | ········ |
| An old Abate, meek and mild, | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| My friend and teacher, when a child, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Who sometimes in those days of old | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| The legend of an Angel told, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Which ran, as I remember, thus.” | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
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.