The Burial of the Poet, Richard Henry Dana
In the old churchyard of his native town,And in the ancestral tomb beside the wall,We laid him in the sleep that comes to all,And left him to his rest and his renown.The snow was falling, as if Heaven dropped downWhite flowers of Paradise to strew his pall;--The dead around him seemed to wake, and callHis name, as worthy of so white a crown.And now the moon is shining on the scene,And the broad sheet of snow is written o'erWith shadows cruciform of leafless trees,As once the winding-sheet of SaladinWith chapters of the Koran; but, ah! moreMysterious and triumphant signs are these.
Words in this poem
- churchyard n.
- The ground adjoining a church, in which the dead are buried; a cemetery.
- cruciform a.
- Cross-shaped; (Bot.) having four parts arranged in the form of a cross. [L. crux, crucis, cress + -form: cf. F. cruciforme.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Burial of the Poet, Richard Henry Dana 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, The Burial of the Poet, Richard Henry Dana, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/richard-henry-dana.html, id L17811.
Form and metre
The Burial of the Poet, Richard Henry Dana is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 ABBAABBA--CA-C townA · wallB · allB · renownA · downA · pallB · callB · crownA · scene · o'er · treesC · saladinA · more · theseC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In the old churchyard of his native town, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| And in the ancestral tomb beside the wall, | 11 | ···˘/˘·˘/·· |
| We laid him in the sleep that comes to all, | 10 | ·········· |
| And left him to his rest and his renown. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The snow was falling, as if Heaven dropped down | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| White flowers of Paradise to strew his pall;-- | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| The dead around him seemed to wake, and call | 10 | ·········· |
| His name, as worthy of so white a crown. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And now the moon is shining on the scene, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And the broad sheet of snow is written o'er | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With shadows cruciform of leafless trees, | 10 | ·/·/˘˘·/˘· |
| As once the winding-sheet of Saladin | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| With chapters of the Koran; but, ah! more | 10 | ·/˘··˘/··· |
| Mysterious and triumphant signs are these. | 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.