The Happiest Land
There sat one day in quiet,By an alehouse on the Rhine,Four hale and hearty fellows,And drank the precious wine.
The landlord's daughter filled their cups,Around the rustic boardThen sat they all so calm and still,And spake not one rude word.
But, when the maid departed,A Swabian raised his hand,And cried, all hot and flushed with wine,"Long live the Swabian land!
"The greatest kingdom upon earthCannot with that compareWith all the stout and hardy menAnd the nut-brown maidens there.
"Ha!" cried a Saxon, laughing,And dashed his heard with wine;"I had rather live in Laplaud,Than that Swabian land of thine!
"The goodliest land on all this earth,It is the Saxon landThere have I as many maidensAs fingers on this hand!"
"Hold your tongues! both Swabianand Saxon!"A bold Bohemian cries;"If there's a heaven upon this earth,In Bohemia it lies.
"There the tailor blows the flute,And the cobbler blows the horn,And the miner blows the bugle,Over mountain gorge and bourn."And then the landlord's daughterUp to heaven raised her hand,And said, "Ye may no more contend,--There lies the happiest land!"
Words in this poem
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- miner n.
- One who mines; a digger for metals, etc.; one engaged in the business of getting ore, coal, or precious stones, out of the earth; one who digs military mines; as, armies have sappers and miners. [Cf. F. mineur.]
- bourn n.
- A stream or rivulet; a burn. [OE. burne, borne, AS. burna; akin to OS. brunno spring, G. born, brunnen, OHG. prunno, Goth. brunna, Icel. brunnr, and perh. to Gr. burn, v., because the source]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Happiest Land 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 Happiest Land, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-happiest-land.html, id L18052.
Form and metre
The Happiest Land is 37 lines in 8 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A quiet · rhineA · fellows · wineA
- 3 -A-A departed · handA · wine · landA
- 4 -A-A earth · compareA · men · thereA
- 5 -A-A laughing · wineA · laplaud · thineA
- 6 -A-A earth · landA · maidens · handA
- 7 --A-A swabian · saxon · criesA · earth · liesA
- 8 -A-A-B-B flute · hornA · bugle · bournA · daughter · handB · contend · landB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There sat one day in quiet, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| By an alehouse on the Rhine, | 7 | ··/···· |
| Four hale and hearty fellows, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And drank the precious wine. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The landlord's daughter filled their cups, | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| Around the rustic board | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Then sat they all so calm and still, | 8 | ········ |
| And spake not one rude word. | 6 | ······ |
| But, when the maid departed, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| A Swabian raised his hand, | 7 | ····˘·· |
| And cried, all hot and flushed with wine, | 8 | ········ |
| "Long live the Swabian land! | 6 | ······ |
| "The greatest kingdom upon earth | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Cannot with that compare | 6 | ˘/··˘/ |
| With all the stout and hardy men | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And the nut-brown maidens there. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| "Ha!" cried a Saxon, laughing, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And dashed his heard with wine; | 7 | ··˘···· |
| "I had rather live in Laplaud, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Than that Swabian land of thine! | 7 | ······· |
| "The goodliest land on all this earth, | 8 | ········ |
| It is the Saxon land | 6 | ···/˘· |
| There have I as many maidens | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| As fingers on this hand!" | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| "Hold your tongues! both Swabian | 6 | ······ |
| and Saxon!" | 3 | ·/˘ |
| A bold Bohemian cries; | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| "If there's a heaven upon this earth, | 8 | ···/···· |
| In Bohemia it lies. | 7 | ·˘/˘˘·· |
| "There the tailor blows the flute, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And the cobbler blows the horn, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And the miner blows the bugle, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Over mountain gorge and bourn." | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And then the landlord's daughter | 7 | ···/·/˘ |
| Up to heaven raised her hand, | 8 | ··/˘·˘·· |
| And said, "Ye may no more contend,-- | 8 | ······˘/ |
| There lies the happiest land!" | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
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.