Maiden and Weathercock
O weathercock on the village spire,With your golden feathers all on fire,Tell me, what can you see from your perchAbove there over the tower of the church?
I can see the roofs and the streets below,And the people moving to and fro,And beyond, without either roof or street,The great salt sea, and the fisherman's fleet.
I can see a ship come sailing inBeyond the headlands and harbor of Lynn,And a young man standing on the deck,With a silken kerchief round his neck.
Now he is pressing it to his lips,And now he is kissing his finger-tips,And now he is lifting and waving his handAnd blowing the kisses toward the land.
Ah, that is the ship from over the sea,That is bringing my lover back to me,Bringing my lover so fond and true,Who does not change with the wind like you.
If I change with all the winds that blow,It is only because they made me so,And people would think it wondrous strange,If I, a Weathercock, should not change.
O pretty Maiden, so fine and fair,With your dreamy eyes and your golden hair,When you and your lover meet to-dayYou will thank me for looking some other way.
Words in this poem
- lynn n.
- A waterfall. See Lin.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Maiden and Weathercock 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, Maiden and Weathercock, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/maiden-and-weathercock.html, id L17807.
Form and metre
Maiden and Weathercock is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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 AABB spireA · fireA · perchB · churchB
- 2 AABB belowA · froA · streetB · fleetB
- 3 AABB inA · lynnA · deckB · neckB
- 4 AABB lipsA · tipsA · handB · landB
- 5 AABB seaA · meA · trueB · youB
- 6 AABB blowA · soA · strangeB · changeB
- 7 AABB fairA · hairA · dayB · wayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O weathercock on the village spire, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| With your golden feathers all on fire, | 9 | ··/˘/˘··/ |
| Tell me, what can you see from your perch | 9 | ········· |
| Above there over the tower of the church? | 9 | ·····/··· |
| I can see the roofs and the streets below, | 10 | ·········· |
| And the people moving to and fro, | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| And beyond, without either roof or street, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The great salt sea, and the fisherman's fleet. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| I can see a ship come sailing in | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Beyond the headlands and harbor of Lynn, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| And a young man standing on the deck, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| With a silken kerchief round his neck. | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Now he is pressing it to his lips, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And now he is kissing his finger-tips, | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| And now he is lifting and waving his hand | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| And blowing the kisses toward the land. | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| Ah, that is the ship from over the sea, | 9 | ········· |
| That is bringing my lover back to me, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| Bringing my lover so fond and true, | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| Who does not change with the wind like you. | 9 | ········· |
| If I change with all the winds that blow, | 9 | ········· |
| It is only because they made me so, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And people would think it wondrous strange, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| If I, a Weathercock, should not change. | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| O pretty Maiden, so fine and fair, | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| With your dreamy eyes and your golden hair, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| When you and your lover meet to-day | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| You will thank me for looking some other way. | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘· |
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