To William E. Channing
The pages of thy book I read,And as I closed each one,My heart, responding, ever said,"Servant of God! well done!"
Well done! Thy words are great and bold;At times they seem to me,Like Luther's, in the days of old,Half-battles for the free.
Go on, until this land revokesThe old and chartered Lie,The feudal curse, whose whips and yokesInsult humanity.
A voice is ever at thy sideSpeaking in tones of might,Like the prophetic voice, that criedTo John in Patmos, "Write!"
Write! and tell out this bloody tale;Record this dire eclipse,This Day of Wrath, this Endless Wail,This dread Apocalypse!
Words in this poem
- chartered a.
- Granted or established by charter; having, or existing under, a charter; having a privilege by charter.
- dire a.
- Ill-boding; portentous; as, dire omens. [L. dirus; of uncertain origin.]
- apocalypse n.
- The revelation delivered to St. John, in the isle of Patmos, near the close of the first century, forming the last book of the New Testament. [L. apocalypsis, Gr. apocalypse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To William E. Channing 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 William E. Channing, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/to-william-e-channing.html, id L17507.
Form and metre
To William E. Channing is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% 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 ABAB readA · oneB · saidA · doneB
- 2 ABAB boldA · meB · oldA · freeB
- 4 ABAB sideA · mightB · criedA · writeB
- 5 ABAB taleA · eclipseB · wailA · apocalypseB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The pages of thy book I read, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And as I closed each one, | 6 | ······ |
| My heart, responding, ever said, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| "Servant of God! well done!" | 6 | /˘···· |
| Well done! Thy words are great and bold; | 8 | ········ |
| At times they seem to me, | 6 | ······ |
| Like Luther's, in the days of old, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Half-battles for the free. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Go on, until this land revokes | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The old and chartered Lie, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The feudal curse, whose whips and yokes | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Insult humanity. | 6 | ˘/˘/˘˘ |
| A voice is ever at thy side | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Speaking in tones of might, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Like the prophetic voice, that cried | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| To John in Patmos, "Write!" | 6 | ······ |
| Write! and tell out this bloody tale; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Record this dire eclipse, | 6 | ˘/··˘/ |
| This Day of Wrath, this Endless Wail, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| This dread Apocalypse! | 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.