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A GADARENE. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Summary, meaning, line-by-line analysis & FAQ.

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This brief and powerful poem recounts the biblical tale of the Gadarene demoniac—a man so plagued by his inner demons that he resides among tombs, screaming and harming himself, unreachable by others.

Poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Themes
despair, faith, identity
The PoemFull text

A GADARENE.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

He hath escaped, hath plucked his chains asunder, And broken his fetters; always night and day Is in the mountains here, and in the tombs, Crying aloud, and cutting himself with stones, Exceeding fierce, so that no man can tame him! THE DEMONIAC from above, unseen. O Aschmedai! O Aschmedai, have pity!

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

This brief and powerful poem recounts the biblical tale of the Gadarene demoniac—a man so plagued by his inner demons that he resides among tombs, screaming and harming himself, unreachable by others. The initial voice portrays him as a terrifying, wild figure from a distance. Then, the man himself calls out to Aschmedai, a demon king from Jewish tradition, pleading for mercy from the very entity that controls him.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. He hath escaped, hath plucked his chains asunder, / And broken his fetters; always night and day

    Editor's note

    An outside narrator, likely a local resident, urgently describes the demoniac with a sense of breathlessness. The man has escaped all the physical restraints that the community attempted to impose on him. The language closely mirrors the King James Bible (Mark 5:1–20), immediately anchoring the poem in scripture.

  2. Is in the mountains here, and in the tombs, / Crying aloud, and cutting himself with stones,

    Editor's note

    The demoniac's habitat — mountains and tombs — puts him on the brink of the living world. Tombs belong to the dead, not the living, and his self-harm with stones shows a pain so deep that it becomes self-destructive. The narrator describes this in a detached manner, almost like delivering a cautionary tale to newcomers.

  3. Exceeding fierce, so that no man can tame him!

    Editor's note

    The exclamation mark reveals genuine fear. The community has made its decision: he is beyond any human assistance. The term "tame" is significant—it likens the man to a wild animal, taking away his humanity while the narrator discusses his very human suffering.

  4. THE DEMONIAC from above, unseen. / O Aschmedai! O Aschmedai, have pity!

    Editor's note

    The poem takes a sudden turn. The demoniac speaks directly — not to God or the townspeople, but to Aschmedai, the demon king from Jewish folklore (notable in the Talmud and Kabbalistic tradition). The repeated mention of the name and his cry for mercy show a man ensnared in his own suffering, begging the very force that brings about his ruin. The stage direction "from above, unseen" gives him a ghostly presence, there yet out of reach.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

The tone remains urgent and haunted from start to finish. The narrator opens with lines that echo the terse, factual dread of a community report—it's factual yet filled with fear. Then, the demoniac's single cry transforms everything into pure anguish. Although the poem is short, the emotional shift between those two voices is striking: it goes from clinical fear to raw suffering in just one line.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

Chains and fetters
The physical restraints used by the townspeople symbolize every social and moral boundary that the demoniac has crossed. His escape from them doesn't represent freedom; instead, it signifies a complete disconnection from the human world.
Tombs
Living among the dead suggests that the demoniac experiences a form of living death — isolated from community, sanity, and his own identity. The tomb represents the area between life and whatever comes after it.
Cutting himself with stones
Self-harm here reflects an inner conflict. The stones symbolize the landscape turning against the body, indicating that his pain can only find expression through destruction.
Aschmedai
In Jewish tradition, Aschmedai (Asmodeus) is known as the king of demons. When someone calls on him instead of God, it reflects their complete submission to evil — they can only reach out to the force that has enslaved them, and even then, it's only to plead for mercy that is unlikely to be granted.

§06Historical context

Historical context

Longfellow included this poem in his collection *Christus: A Mystery* (1872), a dramatic trilogy that explores the history of Christianity from the Nativity to the early Church and the Reformation. "A Gadarene" is part of the first section, *The Divine Tragedy*, which presents Gospel scenes in verse. The poem is based on Mark 5:1–20, which also appears in Matthew and Luke, and tells the story of a man possessed by many demons whom Jesus ultimately heals. Longfellow focuses on the scene's most agonizing moment—before any healing occurs—and incorporates the figure of Aschmedai from Jewish demonology, merging Gospel accounts with Talmudic tradition. By the time he published this in 1872, Longfellow had endured significant personal loss, including the tragic death of his second wife in a fire. His religious writing reflects a deep understanding of suffering, resisting simplistic comforts.

§07FAQ

Questions readers ask

The Gadarene demoniac appears in the New Testament (Mark 5, Matthew 8, Luke 8) — a man who lives among tombs in the Gadara area and is tormented by demons. He shatters any chains the locals use to try to contain him and inflicts harm upon himself. Jesus ultimately heals him by sending the demons into a herd of pigs.

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