The Statue Over the Cathedral Door
Forms of saints and kings are standingThe cathedral door above;Yet I saw but one among themWho hath soothed my soul with love.
In his mantle,--wound about him,As their robes the sowers wind,--Bore he swallows and their fledglings,Flowers and weeds of every kind.
And so stands he calm and childlike,High in wind and tempest wild;O, were I like him exalted,I would be like him, a child!
And my songs,--green leaves and blossoms,--To the doors of heaven would hear,Calling even in storm and tempest,Round me still these birds of air.
Words in this poem
- childlike a.
- Resembling a child, or that which belongs to children; becoming a child; meek; submissive; dutiful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Statue Over the Cathedral Door 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 Statue Over the Cathedral Door, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-statue-over-the-cathedral-door.html, id L26179.
Form and metre
The Statue Over the Cathedral Door is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 -A-A standing · aboveA · them · loveA
- 2 -A-A him · windA · fledglings · kindA
- 3 -A-A childlike · wildA · exalted · childA
- 4 -A-A blossoms · hearA · tempest · airA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Forms of saints and kings are standing | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The cathedral door above; | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Yet I saw but one among them | 8 | ········ |
| Who hath soothed my soul with love. | 8 | ···˘···· |
| In his mantle,--wound about him, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| As their robes the sowers wind,-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Bore he swallows and their fledglings, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Flowers and weeds of every kind. | 8 | /···/˘˘· |
| And so stands he calm and childlike, | 8 | ······/· |
| High in wind and tempest wild; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| O, were I like him exalted, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| I would be like him, a child! | 7 | ······· |
| And my songs,--green leaves and blossoms,-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| To the doors of heaven would hear, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Calling even in storm and tempest, | 9 | /˘/˘···/˘ |
| Round me still these birds of air. | 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.