The Wise Men of the East
The stable of the Inn. The VIRGIN and CHILD. Three Gypsy Kings,GASPAR, MELCHIOR, and BELSHAZZAR, shall come in.
Hail to thee, Jesus of Nazareth!Though in a manger thou draw breath,Thou art greater than Life and Death,Greater than Joy or Woe!This cross upon the line of lifePortendeth struggle, toil, and strife,And through a region with peril rifeIn darkness shalt thou go!
Hail to thee, King of Jerusalem!Though humbly born in Bethlehem,A sceptre and a diademAwait thy brow and hand!The sceptre is a simple reed,The crown will make thy temples bleed,And in thine hour of greatest need,Abashed thy subjects stand!
Hail to thee, Christ of Christendom!O'er all the earth thy kingdom come!From distant Trebizond to RomeThy name shall men adore!Peace and good-will among all men,The Virgin has returned again,Returned the old Saturnian reignAnd Golden Age once more.
Jesus, the Son of God, am I,Born here to suffer and to dieAccording to the prophecy,That other men may live!
And now these clothes, that wrapped Him, takeAnd keep them precious, for his sake;Our benediction thus we make,Naught else have we to give.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- manger n.
- A trough or open box in which fodder is placed for horses or cattle to eat. [F. mangeoire, fr. manger to eat, fr. L. manducare, fr. mandere to chew. Cf. Mandible, Manducate.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- rife a.
- Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
- bethlehem n.
- A hospital for lunatics; -- corrupted into bedlam. [Heb. b house of food; b house + lekhem food, lakham to eat. Formerly the name of a hospital for the insane, in London, which had been the priory of St. Mary of ]
- sceptre n.
- A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. [F. sceptre, L. sceptrum, from Gr. shaft. See Shaft, and cf. Scape a stem, shaft.]
- await v. t.
- To watch for; to look out for. [OF. awaitier, agaitier; (L. ad) + waitier, gaitier to watch, F. guetter. See Wait.]
- christendom n.
- The profession of faith in Christ by baptism; hence, the Christian religion, or the adoption of it. [AS. cristend; cristen a Christian + -dom.]
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- saturnian a.
- Of or pertaining to Saturn, whose age or reign, from the mildness and wisdom of his government, is called the golden age. [L. Saturnius.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wise Men of the East 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 Wise Men of the East, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-wise-men-of-the-east.html, id L17920.
Form and metre
The Wise Men of the East is 34 lines in 6 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is AAABCCCB, in 2 of the 6 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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.
- 2 AAABCCCB nazarethA · breathA · deathA · woeB · lifeC · strifeC · rifeC · goB
- 3 AAABCCCB jerusalemA · bethlehemA · diademA · handB · reedC · bleedC · needC · standB
- 4 AAABCC-B christendomA · comeA · romeA · adoreB · menC · againC · reign · moreB
- 5 AA-- iA · dieA · prophecy · live
- 6 AAA- takeA · sakeA · makeA · give
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The stable of the Inn. The VIRGIN and CHILD. Three Gypsy Kings, | 15 | ·/˘····/˘···/˘· |
| GASPAR, MELCHIOR, and BELSHAZZAR, shall come in. | 12 | /˘˘/˘······· |
| Hail to thee, Jesus of Nazareth! | 9 | ···/˘·/˘˘ |
| Though in a manger thou draw breath, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thou art greater than Life and Death, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Greater than Joy or Woe! | 6 | /˘···· |
| This cross upon the line of life | 8 | ········ |
| Portendeth struggle, toil, and strife, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| And through a region with peril rife | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| In darkness shalt thou go! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Hail to thee, King of Jerusalem! | 9 | ·····˘/˘˘ |
| Though humbly born in Bethlehem, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A sceptre and a diadem | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Await thy brow and hand! | 6 | ˘/···· |
| The sceptre is a simple reed, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The crown will make thy temples bleed, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And in thine hour of greatest need, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Abashed thy subjects stand! | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Hail to thee, Christ of Christendom! | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| O'er all the earth thy kingdom come! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From distant Trebizond to Rome | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Thy name shall men adore! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Peace and good-will among all men, | 8 | ········ |
| The Virgin has returned again, | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘/ |
| Returned the old Saturnian reign | 10 | ˘/˘··˘/˘˘· |
| And Golden Age once more. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Jesus, the Son of God, am I, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Born here to suffer and to die | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| According to the prophecy, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| That other men may live! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And now these clothes, that wrapped Him, take | 9 | ······˘·· |
| And keep them precious, for his sake; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Our benediction thus we make, | 9 | /˘·˘/˘··· |
| Naught else have we to give. | 6 | ······ |
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.