Analysis of Curfew

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)



Solemnly, mournfully,
  Dealing its dole,
The Curfew Bell
  Is beginning to toll.

Cover the embers,
  And put out the light;
Toil comes with the morning,
  And rest with the night.

Dark grow the windows,
  And quenched is the fire;
Sound fades into silence,--
  All footsteps retire.

No voice in the chambers,
  No sound in the hall!
Sleep and oblivion
  Reign over all!

The book is completed,
  And closed, like the day;
And the hand that has written it
  Lays it away.

Dim grow its fancies;
  Forgotten they lie;
Like coals in the ashes,
  They darken and die.

Song sinks into silence,
  The story is told,
The windows are darkened,
  The hearth-stone is cold.

Darker and darker
  The black shadows fall;
Sleep and oblivion
  Reign over all.


Scheme aaaa bcxc xdex baFA xgxg xaxx ehxh daFA
Poetic Form Quatrain  (88%)
Metre 1001 1011 0101 101011 10010 01101 111010 01101 11010 011010 110110 1101 110010 11001 100100 1101 011010 01101 00111101 1101 11110 01011 110010 11001 110110 01011 010110 01111 10010 0111 100100 1101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 727
Words 131
Sentences 12
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 17
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 69
Words per stanza (avg) 16
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 13, 2023

39 sec read
180

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. more…

All Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poems | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Books

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