Woodstock Park by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker recalls Alfred setting aside royal duties to translate a Roman sage and Chaucer writing his Tales in old age at Woodstock Park. Describing them as sovereigns of truth and fiction, the speaker asks who will inherit and prolong their glory.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Sonnet, Historical Poetry · 155 words
First lines
Here in a little rustic hermitage / Alfred the Saxon King, Alfred the Great, / Postponed the cares of king-craft to translate / The Consolations of the Roman sage. / Here Geoffrey Chaucer in his ripe old age / Wrote the unrivalled Tales, which soon or late / The venturous hand that strives to imitate / Vanquished must fall on the unfinished page. / Two kings were they, who ruled by right divine, / And both supreme; one in the realm of Truth, / One in the realm of Fiction and of Song. / What prince hereditary of their line, / Uprising in the strength and flush of youth, / Their glory shall inherit and prolong?
What this Textopian page supports
Woodstock Park 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: Sonnet, Historical Poetry
- Length: 155 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Woodstock Park by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines move from Alfred and Chaucer's work to a closing question about their successor.
- Historical Poetry — The speaker associates the park with Alfred's translation of a Roman sage and Chaucer's composition of his Tales.
Tags
translation · kingship · storytelling · literary succession · sonnets