A SAMARITAN WOMAN. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Summary, Meaning & Analysis
This poem places us in the mind of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well, a character from the Gospel of John, just before her encounter with Jesus.
The poem
The sun is hot; and the dry east-wind blowing Fills all the air with dust. The birds are silent; Even the little fieldfares in the corn No longer twitter; only the grasshoppers Sing their incessant song of sun and summer. I wonder who those strangers were I met Going into the city? Galileans They seemed to me in speaking, when they asked The short way to the market-place. Perhaps They are fishermen from the lake; or travellers, Looking to find the inn. And here is some one Sitting beside the well; another stranger; A Galilean also by his looks. What can so many Jews be doing here Together in Samaria? Are they going Up to Jerusalem to the Passover? Our Passover is better here at Sychem, For here is Ebal; here is Gerizim, The mountain where our father Abraham Went up to offer Isaac; here the tomb Of Joseph,--for they brought his bones Egypt And buried them in this land, and it is holy.
This poem places us in the mind of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well, a character from the Gospel of John, just before her encounter with Jesus. She's overheated, weary, and curious about the strangers she keeps encountering, and she subtly protects her people's sacred sites from the implied superiority of Jerusalem. It captures a small, intimate moment that brings a well-known Bible story to life in a very human way.
Line-by-line
The sun is hot; and the dry east-wind blowing / Fills all the air with dust.
I wonder who those strangers were I met / Going into the city?
And here is some one / Sitting beside the well; another stranger;
Our Passover is better here at Sychem, / For here is Ebal; here is Gerizim,
Tone & mood
The tone feels conversational and carries a sense of quiet pride. Longfellow uses blank verse—unrhymed iambic pentameter—which allows the woman's thoughts to flow like natural speech, avoiding the stiffness of a formal address. Her voice has a warmth mixed with a hint of weariness, and beneath her everyday remarks about the heat and strangers lies a strong sense of dignified defiance. She's not putting on a show for anyone; she's just sharing her thoughts openly.
Symbols & metaphors
- The well — Jacob's Well stands as the poem's physical and spiritual heart. In the ancient Near East, wells served as vital meeting spots and life sources, and this one holds significant biblical importance — Jacob excavated it, and Jesus will share "living water" with the woman from its depths. Additionally, it highlights the woman's isolation: she arrives alone at noon, unlike the other women who gather at dawn.
- The east wind and dust — The dry east wind, known as the *khamsin* or *sirocco*, is a genuine weather phenomenon in the region. It also holds biblical connotations related to hardship and divine testing. The dust it raises clouds visibility — the woman cannot yet clearly see who she is about to meet.
- Mount Gerizim — Gerizim is the holy mountain for Samaritans, standing in contrast to Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The woman's strong belief in its sacredness, connecting it to Abraham and Isaac, reflects Samaritan identity and highlights the deep religious and ethnic divide that has existed between Samaritans and Jews.
- The grasshoppers — The grasshoppers are the only creatures still chirping in the midday heat, symbolizing persistence and how nature remains indifferent to human struggles. Their "incessant song" stands out against the quiet of the birds and subtly highlights the woman's own steadfast, ongoing inner life.
- The tomb of Joseph — Joseph's bones were taken from Egypt and buried at Shechem (Sychem), representing a return home and a connection to ancestry. The woman references them to emphasize that this land is sacred — it is the resting place of her ancestors, which is significant.
Historical context
Longfellow published this poem in his collection *Christus: A Mystery* (1872), a three-part dramatic work that traces the history of Christianity from the Nativity to the Puritan era. "A Samaritan Woman" is part of the first section, *The Divine Tragedy*, which dramatizes scenes from the Gospels. Throughout his career, Longfellow was drawn to giving voice to figures who exist on the fringes of grand historical narratives. The source text is John 4:1–42, where Jesus speaks to a Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well near Sychar (Sychem). Samaritans, a people of mixed Israelite and Assyrian descent, worshipped on Mount Gerizim rather than in Jerusalem, leading to their disdain by first-century Jews. Longfellow's decision to present the scene as the woman's interior monologue—before Jesus even addresses her—reflects a modern, humanizing approach for a Victorian poet engaging with sacred material.
FAQ
It's a dramatic monologue delivered by the Samaritan woman from the Gospel of John, chapter 4. As she walks to Jacob's Well at noon, she notices strangers in town and reflects on her people's sacred history — just moments before meeting Jesus. Longfellow captures her inner thoughts right before that significant encounter unfolds.
In the Gospel of John, the fact that she arrives at the sixth hour (noon) is important. Normally, women would collect water together during the cooler morning hours. Her choice to come alone in the heat of midday hints that she is trying to avoid the other women, likely due to her social reputation (the Gospel later discloses that she has had five husbands). Longfellow highlights this detail through the sweltering heat he depicts at the start of the poem.
Samaritans and Jews have a long history of religious and ethnic rivalry. Following the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel, the local population intermarried with Assyrian settlers. This led to the emergence of the Samaritan community, which created its own version of the Torah and chose to worship on Mount Gerizim instead of in Jerusalem. As a result, Jews typically viewed Samaritans as impure and kept their distance. The woman's pride in Gerizim, along with Abraham's sacrifice and Joseph's tomb, serves as her subtle resistance to that dismissal.
Galilee was a northern region of ancient Israel, and Galileans had a distinct accent in Aramaic—much like how a regional dialect can signify someone’s background today. Jesus and his disciples hailed from Galilee. The woman recognizes the strangers by their speech, adding a realistic element to the scene. To her, "Galilean" and "Jew" are practically interchangeable terms: both are seen as outsiders who don't belong in Samaria.
The poem is crafted in blank verse — unrhymed iambic pentameter. This mirrors the form Shakespeare employed for his dramatic speeches, making it ideal for a dramatic monologue. It captures the rhythm of natural speech while avoiding the sing-song quality of rhyme, allowing the woman to sound as if she's genuinely thinking out loud.
It's truly both. Longfellow was writing within a broader work focused on Christian history, so the religious backdrop is authentic. However, he fully humanizes the woman—giving her sensory experiences, mild irritation, ethnic pride, and curiosity—before any miracle or revelation occurs. The poem's strength lies in that mix: a sacred story conveyed through the lens of an ordinary, fully developed human mind.
Gerizim is the holy mountain for the Samaritans, situated close to Shechem (referred to as "Sychem" in the poem). Instead of building their temple in Jerusalem, the Samaritans chose this location, which became a significant point of contention between the two communities. In John 4, the woman directly questions Jesus about whether worship should take place on Gerizim or in Jerusalem. Longfellow illustrates that she is already contemplating this issue before she even addresses him.
Stopping right as the woman reaches the well and spots the stranger sitting there is a purposeful dramatic decision. The entire poem builds up — the heat, the strangers, the ethnic tension, the pride in her homeland — and then the actual moment of their meeting is left just out of sight. This choice makes the reader sense the gravity of what’s about to unfold without laying it all out, shifting the focus to the woman's inner experience rather than the miraculous event itself.