Analysis of Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 1. The Musician's Tale; The Saga of King Olaf IX. -- Thangbrand The Priest
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
Short of stature, large of limb,
Burly face and russet beard,
All the women stared at him,
When in Iceland he appeared.
'Look!' they said,
With nodding head,
'There goes Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.'
All the prayers he knew by rote,
He could preach like Chrysostome,
From the Fathers he could quote,
He had even been at Rome,
A learned clerk,
A man of mark,
Was this Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.
He was quarrelsome and loud,
And impatient of control,
Boisterous in the market crowd,
Boisterous at the wassail-bowl,
Everywhere
Would drink and swear,
Swaggering Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest
In his house this malcontent
Could the King no longer bear,
So to Iceland he was sent
To convert the heathen there,
And away
One summer day
Sailed this Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.
There in Iceland, o'er their books
Pored the people day and night,
But he did not like their looks,
Nor the songs they used to write.
'All this rhyme
Is waste of time!'
Grumbled Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.
To the alehouse, where he sat
Came the Scalds and Saga-men;
Is it to be wondered at,
That they quarrelled now and then,
When o'er his beer
Began to leer
Drunken Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest?
All the folk in Altafiord
Boasted of their island grand;
Saying in a single word,
'Iceland is the finest land
That the sun
Doth shine upon!'
Loud laughed Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.
And he answered: 'What's the use
Of this bragging up and down,
When three women and one goose
Make a market in your town!'
Every Scald
Satires drawled
On poor Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.
Something worse they did than that;
And what vexed him most of all
Was a figure in shovel hat,
Drawn in charcoal on the wall;
With words that go
Sprawling below,
'This is Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.'
Hardly knowing what he did,
Then he smote them might and main,
Thorvald Veile and Veterlid
Lay there in the alehouse slain.
'To-day we are gold,
To-morrow mould!'
Muttered Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.
Much in fear of axe and rope,
Back to Norway sailed he then.
'O King Olaf! little hope
Is there of these Iceland men!'
Meekly said,
With bending head,
Pious Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.
Scheme | ABABCCD EAEXXXD FGFGHHD IHIHJJD KLKLMMD NONOXHD BPXPXXD QRQRSSD NTNTUUD XVBVWWD XOXOCCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110111 1010101 1010111 1010101 111 1101 11111 1011111 11111 1010111 1110111 011 0111 11111 1110001 0010101 10000101 1001011 10 1101 100111 011101 1011101 1110111 1100101 001 1101 11111 10101011 1010101 1111111 1011111 111 1111 10111 101111 1010101 1111101 111101 11011 0111 10111 10101 1011101 1000101 1010101 101 1101 11111 0110101 1110101 1110011 1010011 1001 101 11111 1011111 0111111 10100101 101101 1111 1001 11111 1010111 1111101 11101 110011 11111 1101 10111 1011101 111111 1110101 1111101 101 1101 10111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 2,044 |
Words | 374 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 77 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 148 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:54 min read
- 112 Views
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"Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 1. The Musician's Tale; The Saga of King Olaf IX. -- Thangbrand The Priest" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18753/tales-of-a-wayside-inn-%3A-part-1.-the-musician%27s-tale%3B-the-saga-of-king-olaf-ix.----thangbrand-the-priest>.
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