Barn-Door Inn by Sarah Noble Ives
Two travelers, Jimmy and Alice, along with the poem's narrator, stop one afternoon at the inn called "The Great Barn-Door" after growing tired of travel. Jimmy and Alice take rooms in the loft, while the narrator settles into a room on the second floor. Jimmy and Alice climb up over the rafters above the narrator's head and peep out at the sky through the swallow-holes, prompting the narrator to wonder what their mother would say if she saw them there. Meanwhile, the narrator lies down in the soft new hay, where sunlight creeps in through a yellow chink and a long beam finds them and makes their eyes blink. Dust motes circle, whirl, and dance in the light; the narrator's pillow is soft, warm, and deep, and the hay smells sweet, until they fall asleep there in the mow. The narrator dreams a dream full of swallows' wings, elfish motes in the dusty air, and thousands of other wonderful things, until Jimmy and Alice find them there.
By Sarah Noble Ives · Genre: Children's Poetry, Fantasy, Pastoral Poetry · 233 words
First lines
We were tired of travel one afternoon, / And stopped at the sign of "The Great Barn-Door," / And Jimmy and Alice took rooms in the loft, / While I had mine on the second floor.
Jimmy and Alice went climbing high / Over the rafters above my head, / And peeped thro' the swallow-holes out at the sky. / -If Mother had seen them, what would she have said?
But I stayed down in the soft new hay, / And the sun crept in thro' a yellow chink, / And a long beam found me out where I lay, / And tickled my eyes till it made them blink.
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Genres
- Children's Poetry — The poem centers on childish wonder and adventure with young characters exploring an inn and experiencing imaginative dreams, reflecting innocent perspective and childhood concerns.
- Fantasy — The work incorporates fantastical elements including a dream sequence, 'elfish motes' in the air, and the transformation of ordinary dust particles into magical dancing entities, creating a whimsical, otherworldly atmosphere.
- Pastoral Poetry — The poem celebrates rural setting and simple country life, focusing on sensory beauty of a barn and hay loft with emphasis on natural elements like swallows, sunlight through chinks, and sweet-smelling hay.
- Romantic Poetry — The work emphasizes emotion, imagination, and sensory experience over logic, valorizes nature and dreams, and uses lyrical language to convey deep feeling and wonder, reflecting core Romantic characteristics.
Tags
poem · children's literature · narrative poem · rhymed verse · travel · wandering · inn · barn · countryside · pastoral · rural setting · dream
What this Textopian page supports
Barn-Door Inn is listed on Textopian as a poem by Sarah Noble Ives, 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: Sarah Noble Ives
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Children's Poetry, Fantasy, Pastoral Poetry, Romantic Poetry, Narrative Poetry
- Length: 233 words
- Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Barn-Door Inn by Sarah Noble Ives
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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