To an Old Danish Song-Book
Welcome, my old friend,Welcome to a foreign fireside,While the sullen gales of autumnShake the windows.
The ungrateful worldHas, it seems, dealt harshly with thee,Since, beneath the skies of Denmark,First I met thee.
There are marks of age,There are thumb-marks on thy margin,Made by hands that clasped thee rudely,At the alehouse.
Soiled and dull thou art;Yellow are thy time-worn pages,As the russet, rain-molestedLeaves of autumn.
Thou art stained with wineScattered from hilarious goblets,As the leaves with the libationsOf Olympus.
Yet dost thou recallDays departed, half-forgotten,When in dreamy youth I wanderedBy the Baltic,--
When I paused to hearThe old ballad of King ChristianShouted from suburban tavernsIn the twilight.
Thou recallest bards,Who in solitary chambers,And with hearts by passion wasted,Wrote thy pages.
Thou recallest homesWhere thy songs of love and friendshipMade the gloomy Northern winterBright as summer.
Once some ancient Scald,In his bleak, ancestral Iceland,Chanted staves of these old balladsTo the Vikings.
Once in Elsinore,At the court of old King HamletYorick and his boon companionsSang these ditties.
Once Prince Frederick's GuardSang them in their smoky barracks;--Suddenly the English cannonJoined the chorus!
Peasants in the field,Sailors on the roaring ocean,Students, tradesmen, pale mechanics,All have sung them.
Thou hast been their friend;They, alas! have left thee friendless!Yet at least by one warm firesideArt thou welcome.
And, as swallows buildIn these wide, old-fashioned chimneys,So thy twittering songs shall nestleIn my bosom,--
Quiet, close, and warm,Sheltered from all molestation,And recalling by their voicesYouth and travel.
Words in this poem
- fireside n.
- A place near the fire or hearth; home; domestic life or retirement.
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- ungrateful a.
- Not grateful; not thankful for favors; making no returns, or making ill return for kindness, attention, etc.; ingrateful. South.
- hilarious a.
- Mirthful; noisy; merry.
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- suburban a.
- Of or pertaining to suburbs; inhabiting, or being in, the suburbs of a city. [L. suburbanus.]
- wrote v. i.
- To root with the snout. See 1st Root. [OE. wroten. See 1st Root.]
- scald v. t.
- To burn with hot liquid or steam; to pain or injure by contact with, or imersion in, any hot fluid; as, to scald the hand. [OF. eschalder, eschauder, escauder, F. échauder, fr. L. excaldare; ex + caldus, calidus, warm, hot. See Ex, and Calderon.]
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- friendless a.
- Destitute of friends; forsaken. [AS. freóndleás.]
- twittering n.
- The act of one who, or that which, twitters.
- 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,]
- nestle v. i.
- To make and occupy a nest; to nest. [AS. nestlian.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To an Old Danish Song-Book 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, To an Old Danish Song-Book, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/to-an-old-danish-song-book.html, id L17536.
Form and metre
To an Old Danish Song-Book is 64 lines in 16 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.4 syllables. 39 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 34% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 2 -A-A world · theeA · denmark · theeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome, my old friend, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Welcome to a foreign fireside, | 9 | /˘··/˘/˘· |
| While the sullen gales of autumn | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Shake the windows. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| The ungrateful world | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| Has, it seems, dealt harshly with thee, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Since, beneath the skies of Denmark, | 8 | ······/· |
| First I met thee. | 4 | ···· |
| There are marks of age, | 5 | ····· |
| There are thumb-marks on thy margin, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Made by hands that clasped thee rudely, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| At the alehouse. | 4 | ··/· |
| Soiled and dull thou art; | 5 | ····· |
| Yellow are thy time-worn pages, | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| As the russet, rain-molested | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Leaves of autumn. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Thou art stained with wine | 5 | ····· |
| Scattered from hilarious goblets, | 9 | /˘·˘/˘˘/˘ |
| As the leaves with the libations | 8 | ········ |
| Of Olympus. | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| Yet dost thou recall | 5 | ···/· |
| Days departed, half-forgotten, | 8 | ·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| When in dreamy youth I wandered | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| By the Baltic,-- | 4 | ··/˘ |
| When I paused to hear | 5 | ····· |
| The old ballad of King Christian | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Shouted from suburban taverns | 8 | /˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| In the twilight. | 4 | ··/· |
| Thou recallest bards, | 5 | ·/·˘· |
| Who in solitary chambers, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| And with hearts by passion wasted, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Wrote thy pages. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Thou recallest homes | 5 | ·/·˘· |
| Where thy songs of love and friendship | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Made the gloomy Northern winter | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Bright as summer. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Once some ancient Scald, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| In his bleak, ancestral Iceland, | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| Chanted staves of these old ballads | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| To the Vikings. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Once in Elsinore, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| At the court of old King Hamlet | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Yorick and his boon companions | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Sang these ditties. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Once Prince Frederick's Guard | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Sang them in their smoky barracks;-- | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Suddenly the English cannon | 8 | /˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| Joined the chorus! | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Peasants in the field, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Sailors on the roaring ocean, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Students, tradesmen, pale mechanics, | 8 | /˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| All have sung them. | 4 | ···· |
| Thou hast been their friend; | 5 | ····· |
| They, alas! have left thee friendless! | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| Yet at least by one warm fireside | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Art thou welcome. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| And, as swallows build | 5 | ··/˘· |
| In these wide, old-fashioned chimneys, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| So thy twittering songs shall nestle | 9 | ··/˘˘··/˘ |
| In my bosom,-- | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Quiet, close, and warm, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Sheltered from all molestation, | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| And recalling by their voices | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
| Youth and travel. | 4 | ··/˘ |
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.