The poem “A Legend of the Northland” is a ballad that tells an old traditional story or legend about an old lady and Saint Peter. The poem is composed of short stanzas and is part of folk culture, passed down orally.
Line-by-Line Analysis
The poem opens by setting the scene in a cold, far-off place and then introduces the main characters and the moral lesson.
| Stanza | Lines | Text | Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | 1–2 | Away, away in the Northland, / Where the hours of the day are few, | The setting is the Northland, a cold region where daylight hours are very short, likely in winter. |
| 3–4 | And the nights are so long in winter / That they cannot sleep them through; | The nights are described as extremely long, emphasizing the harshness of the environment. | |
| II | 5–6 | Where they harness the swift reindeer / To the sledges, when it snows; | Reindeer are used to pull sledges in the snowy conditions, typical of Arctic or sub-Arctic regions. |
| 7–8 | And the children look like bear’s cubs / In their funny, furry clothes: | The children wear thick, furry clothes for warmth, making them resemble bear cubs. | |
| III | 9–10 | They tell them a curious story / I don’t believe ’tis true; | The people of the Northland tell a “curious story” (the legend). The narrator expresses disbelief in its literal truth. |
| 11–12 | And yet you may learn a lesson / If I tell the tale to you. | The narrator suggests the story is worth telling because it contains a moral lesson. | |
| IV | 13–14 | Once, when the good Saint Peter / Lived in the world below, | The story begins when Saint Peter (one of the 12 apostle of Christ) was traveling the earth in human form. |
| 15–16 | And walked about it, preaching, / Just as he did, you know, | Saint Peter was traveling and preaching. | |
| V | 17–18 | He came to the door of a cottage, / In travelling round the earth, | During his travels, he arrived at a small cottage. |
| 19–20 | Where a little woman was making cakes, / And baking them on the hearth; | Inside, a “little woman” was busy baking cakes on the hearth. | |
| VI | 21–22 | And being faint with fasting, / For the day was almost done, | Saint Peter was very hungry and weak (“faint”) because he had been fasting all day. |
| 23–24 | He asked her, from her store of cakes, / To give him a single one. | He politely requested just one cake from her supply. | |
| VII | 25–26 | So she made a very little cake, / But as it baking lay, | The woman started by making a very small cake for him. |
| 27–28 | She looked at it, and thought it seemed / Too large to give away. | However, as it baked, her greed made her decide the small cake looked too big to part with. | |
| VIII | 29–30 | Therefore she kneaded another, / And still a smaller one; | She started over, kneading an even smaller piece of dough. |
| 31–32 | But it looked, when she turned it over, / As large as the first had done. | When this smaller cake was turned over, her perception (driven by greed) made it look just as large as the first one. | |
| IX | 33–34 | Then she took a tiny scrap of dough, / And rolled and rolled it flat; | Desperate to save her cakes, she took a “tiny scrap” of dough and rolled it out very thin. |
| 35–36 | And baked it thin as a wafer / But she couldn’t part with that. | She baked it until it was as thin as a wafer, but even with this negligible piece, her selfishness prevented her from giving it away. | |
| X | 37–39 | For she said, “My cakes that see / When I eat of them myself / Are yet too large to give away.’ | She rationalized that the cakes looked too large to be given to someone else, despite being willing to eat them herself. |
| 40 | So she put them on the shelf. | She stored all the cakes, refusing to give any to the faint saint. | |
| XI | 41–44 | Then good Saint Peter grew angry, / For he was hungry and faint; / And surely such a woman / Was enough to provoke a saint. | Saint Peter, hungry and weak, became angry. Her behavior was extremely provoking. |
| XII | 45–48 | And he said, “You are far too selfish / To dwell in a human form, / To have both food and shelter, / And fire to keep you warm. | Saint Peter rebuked her, calling her “far too selfish” to deserve the basic human comforts of food, shelter, and warmth. |
| XIII | 49–53 | Now, you shall build as the birds do, / And shall get your scanty food / By boring, and boring, and boring, / All day in the hard, dry wood.” | As punishment, he cursed her to be changed so that she would have to build a nest like a bird and find her meager (“scanty”) food by continually boring into the hard wood. |
| XIV | 54–57 | Then up she went through the chimney, / Never speaking a word, / And out of the top flew a woodpecker, / For she was changed to a bird. | Immediately, she was transformed, flying up the chimney and emerging as a woodpecker. |
| XV | 58–59 | She had a scarlet cap on her head, / And that was left the same; | Her red cap remained, becoming the scarlet cap of the woodpecker. |
| 60–61 | But all the rest of her clothes were burned / Black as a coal in the flame. | Her other clothes were burnt black by the chimney’s fire, turning into the woodpecker’s black plumage. | |
| XVI | 62–65 | And every country schoolboy / Has seen her in the wood, / Where she lives in the trees till this very day, / Boring and boring for food. | The poem concludes by asserting that the woodpecker is this cursed woman, still seen today, diligently pecking for food in the wood, serving as a persistent reminder of the consequences of greed and selfishness. |
Key Themes
- Greed and Selfishness: The old lady’s inability to spare even a tiny scrap of cake highlights her profound selfishness and greed.
- Divine Justice/Consequence: Saint Peter’s punishment is a direct consequence of her ungenerous behavior, ensuring her new existence directly reflects her lack of charity—she now has to work constantly for a tiny amount of food.
- Moral Lesson: The poem, as a legend, serves to teach a lesson about the dangers of greed and the importance of charity and selflessness.
Figures of Speech
Simile
- A comparison between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as“.
- Examples:
- “And the children look like bear’s cubs” (comparing children to bear cubs).
- “And baked it thin as a wafer” (comparing the cake’s thinness to a wafer).
- “But all the rest of her clothes were burned Black as a coal in the flame” (comparing the clothes’ color to a coal).
Alliteration
- The repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of words placed close together.
- Examples: “funny, furry”, “swift reindeer / To the sledges, when it snows”, “learn a lesson”.
Repetition
- The repeating of a word or phrase for emphasis.
- Examples:
- The word “Away, away” in the first line.
- “And rolled and rolled it flat”.
- “By boring, and boring, and boring,“.
Allusion
- An indirect reference to a person, place, or event from history, religion, or literature.
- Example: The reference to Saint Peter, an apostle of Christ.
Assonance
- The repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words.
- Example: “Away, away” (repetition of the ‘a’ sound).
Consonance
- The repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of words in close proximity.
- Example: “swift reindeer / To the sledges, when it snows” (repetition of ‘s’ and ‘w’ sounds).
Aman Pal
Literatureman