January
Janus am I; oldest of potentates;Forward I look, and backward, and belowI count, as god of avenues and gates,The years that through my portals come and go.I block the roads, and drift the fields with snow;I chase the wild-fowl from the frozen fen;My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow,My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men.
About this text
January 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, January, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/january.html, id L17815.
Form and metre
January is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCBC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABBCBC potentatesA · belowB · gatesA · goB · snowB · fenC · flowB · menC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Janus am I; oldest of potentates; | 10 | /˘··/˘·/˘· |
| Forward I look, and backward, and below | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| I count, as god of avenues and gates, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The years that through my portals come and go. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I block the roads, and drift the fields with snow; | 10 | ·········· |
| I chase the wild-fowl from the frozen fen; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men. | 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.