The Ropewalk by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Watching workers spin hemp in a long, dim ropewalk, the speaker imagines ropes used in swings, acrobatics, drawing well water, ringing bells, outdoor pursuits, and sailing. A vision of a prison gallows prompts an appeal to Christian charity to abolish it. The wheel’s drowsy sound accompanies these imagined scenes as the workers continue moving backward.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Meditative Poetry, Descriptive Poetry · 606 words
First lines
In that building, long and low, / With its windows all a-row, / Like the port-holes of a hulk, / Human spiders spin and spin, / Backward down their threads so thin / Dropping, each a hempen bulk.
At the end, an open door; / Squares of sunshine on the floor / Light the long and dusky lane; / And the whirring of a wheel, / Dull and drowsy, makes me feel / All its spokes are in my brain.
Genres
- Meditative Poetry — The speaker’s observation of spinning hemp becomes an inward succession of imagined uses for rope, including an appeal against the gallows.
- Descriptive Poetry — Rhymed six-line stanzas describe the ropewalk’s light and machinery, then depict swings, a well, a bell tower, and ships.
Tags
rope making · labor · imagination · capital punishment · seafaring
What this Textopian page supports
The Ropewalk is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Meditative Poetry, Descriptive Poetry
- Length: 606 words
- Structure: 1 section, 11 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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