Travels by the Fireside
The ceaseless rain is falling fast,And yonder gilded vane,Immovable for three days past,Points to the misty main,
It drives me in upon myselfAnd to the fireside gleams,To pleasant books that crowd my shelf,And still more pleasant dreams,
I read whatever bards have sungOf lands beyond the sea,And the bright days when I was youngCome thronging back to me.
In fancy I can hear againThe Alpine torrent's roar,The mule-bells on the hills of Spain,The sea at Elsinore.
I see the convent's gleaming wallRise from its groves of pine,And towers of old cathedrals tall,And castles by the Rhine.
I journey on by park and spire,Beneath centennial trees,Through fields with poppies all on fire,And gleams of distant seas.
I fear no more the dust and heat,No more I feel fatigue,While journeying with another's feetO'er many a lengthening league.
Let others traverse sea and land,And toil through various climes,I turn the world round with my handReading these poets' rhymes.
From them I learn whatever liesBeneath each changing zone,And see, when looking with their eyes,Better than with mine own.
Words in this poem
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- fireside n.
- A place near the fire or hearth; home; domestic life or retirement.
- centennial a.
- Relating to, or associated with, the commemoration of an event that happened a hundred years before; as, a centennial ode. [L. centum a hundred + annus year.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Travels by the Fireside 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, Travels by the Fireside, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/travels-by-the-fireside.html, id L17772.
Form and metre
Travels by the Fireside is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 1 line ends 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 ABAB fastA · vaneB · pastA · mainB
- 2 ABAB myselfA · gleamsB · shelfA · dreamsB
- 3 ABAB sungA · seaB · youngA · meB
- 4 ABAB againA · roarB · spainA · elsinoreB
- 5 ABAB wallA · pineB · tallA · rhineB
- 6 ABAB spireA · treesB · fireA · seasB
- 7 ABAB heatA · fatigueB · feetA · leagueB
- 8 ABAB landA · climesB · handA · rhymesB
- 9 ABAB liesA · zoneB · eyesA · ownB
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 ceaseless rain is falling fast, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And yonder gilded vane, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Immovable for three days past, | 8 | ˘/˘˘···· |
| Points to the misty main, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| It drives me in upon myself | 8 | ·······/ |
| And to the fireside gleams, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| To pleasant books that crowd my shelf, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And still more pleasant dreams, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I read whatever bards have sung | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of lands beyond the sea, | 6 | ······ |
| And the bright days when I was young | 8 | ········ |
| Come thronging back to me. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| In fancy I can hear again | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The Alpine torrent's roar, | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| The mule-bells on the hills of Spain, | 8 | ········ |
| The sea at Elsinore. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I see the convent's gleaming wall | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Rise from its groves of pine, | 6 | ······ |
| And towers of old cathedrals tall, | 8 | ·/··˘/˘· |
| And castles by the Rhine. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I journey on by park and spire, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Beneath centennial trees, | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| Through fields with poppies all on fire, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And gleams of distant seas. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I fear no more the dust and heat, | 8 | ········ |
| No more I feel fatigue, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| While journeying with another's feet | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| O'er many a lengthening league. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| Let others traverse sea and land, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And toil through various climes, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| I turn the world round with my hand | 8 | ········ |
| Reading these poets' rhymes. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| From them I learn whatever lies | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Beneath each changing zone, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And see, when looking with their eyes, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Better than with mine own. | 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.