BOY.
She sent me here to tell you.
COREY (putting on his jacket).
Where's my horse?
Don't stand there staring, fellows.
Where's my horse?
[Exit COREY.
The Annotated Edition
BOY. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Read aloud in ~1 minOpen reading mode →
This excerpt is a dramatic moment from Longfellow's verse play *Giles Corey of the Salem Farms*, featuring a young boy delivering a message while a character named Corey responds with a sense of urgency and impatience.
- Themes
- courage, death, fear
§01Quick summary
What this poem is about
This excerpt is a dramatic moment from Longfellow's verse play *Giles Corey of the Salem Farms*, featuring a young boy delivering a message while a character named Corey responds with a sense of urgency and impatience. In just a few lines, Longfellow conveys the chaos and tension of the scene through short, repetitive dialogue. It feels less like a complete poem and more like a brief snapshot of action — a man in a rush, frazzled, and primed to ride.
§02Themes
Recurring themes
§03Line by line
Stanza by stanza, with notes
She sent me here to tell you.
Editor's note
The Boy's single line is intentionally sparse — we don’t find out who "she" is or what the message really was. This absence builds immediate tension. The boy acts as a messenger, almost like a plot device, and Longfellow gives him just enough words for the task at hand.
COREY (putting on his jacket). / Where's my horse?
Editor's note
Corey is already moving before he says anything. The stage direction — putting on his jacket — shows that he got the message and acted on it right away. The question "Where's my horse?" reflects a man whose thoughts are already focused elsewhere.
Don't stand there staring, fellows. / Where's my horse?
Editor's note
The repeated question "Where's my horse?" is the crucial action in this scene. Corey isn't really looking for a response to his initial question; he's lashing out at those around him for being sluggish or in shock. The sense of urgency intensifies. He's not afraid; he's just impatient, and that impatience comes off as a sort of restrained panic.
[Exit COREY.
Editor's note
The stage direction wraps up the scene just as concisely as the rest of it. Corey exits without any resolution—we don't see him retrieve his horse, and we have no idea where he's headed. This sudden departure reflects the unexpected arrival of the boy's message. In this fragment, everything is in motion, yet there's no explanation.
§04Tone & mood
How this poem feels
Tense and clipped. There's little space for reflection here — the language brims with action and urgency. Corey’s repeated question and his sharp command to the bystanders inject an irritable, almost frantic energy into the scene, while the Boy’s single line feels flat and matter-of-fact by comparison. The overall effect immerses the reader in a fast-paced world, as if they’ve been dropped right into the thick of it.
§05Symbols & metaphors
Symbols & metaphors
- The horse
- Corey's horse represents escape, urgency, and control. His repeated requests for it show that all he can think about is getting out and moving quickly. In the Salem context, horses also symbolize flight and danger.
- The unnamed message
- "She sent me here to tell you" leaves out the actual message completely. That silence carries a lot of meaning. Whatever was discussed off-stage fuels everything we observe on-stage, and Longfellow believes the audience will sense the significance of what remains unsaid.
- The jacket
- Putting on his jacket is a simple, physical act that represents a larger internal decision. Corey doesn’t think twice — he just puts it on and goes. The jacket marks the moment when a choice turns into action.
§06Historical context
Historical context
This excerpt is taken from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's verse drama *Giles Corey of the Salem Farms* (1868), which is the third play in his series *New England Tragedies*. The play depicts the Salem witch trials of 1692, centering on Giles Corey, a farmer who was pressed to death for refusing to plead. Longfellow created the *New England Tragedies* as part of his broader collection *Christus: A Mystery*, an ambitious three-part work that traces the history of Christianity around the globe. By the time he wrote these plays, Longfellow was in his sixties and had already suffered the loss of his second wife in a tragic fire — an experience that deeply influenced his focus on suffering, faith, and historical injustice. The Salem narrative allowed him to delve into Puritan cruelty and the price of remaining steadfast against mob hysteria.
§07FAQ
Questions readers ask
It's a scene from a verse drama—a play that uses verse. Longfellow wrote *Giles Corey of the Salem Farms* as a stage play, but since it's written in verse and included in a literary collection, it occupies a space between drama and poetry. This excerpt is marked "BOY" because it features the scene or speech related to that character.
Giles Corey was a real person—a farmer from Salem, Massachusetts, who faced witchcraft accusations during the trials of 1692. He chose not to plead, and according to the law then, this refusal meant he would suffer *peine forte et dure*: being gradually crushed under heavy stones. He died without providing the court the answer it sought. Longfellow viewed him as a symbol of unyielding moral courage.
The excerpt doesn’t specify who "she" is. In the full play, "she" probably refers to one of the women involved in the witch trial hysteria—perhaps someone urgently warning Corey or calling for him. Longfellow keeps it ambiguous here to build immediate dramatic tension.
The repetition reflects his impatience and urgency. When he asks once and sees no one moving quickly enough, he asks again. This speech pattern feels authentic for someone under pressure and indicates that the people around him are either stunned or slow, which only heightens his agitation.
The *New England Tragedies* consists of two verse plays that Longfellow released in 1868: *John Endicott*, which addresses the Puritan persecution of Quakers, and *Giles Corey of the Salem Farms*, centered on the witch trials. He included these works in *Christus: A Mystery*, his effort to create an extensive poetic history of Christianity. The plays highlight the darker aspects of religious fervor — exploring the consequences when faith turns into cruelty.
Even in just a few lines, you can sense the fear and urgency permeating the scene. The broader play explores themes of justice, death, and the bravery required to stand against a community caught up in mass hysteria. This fragment is just one small part of that larger narrative.
It's actually quite different from the Longfellow that most people are familiar with — the lengthy, melodic narrative poems such as *The Song of Hiawatha* or *Paul Revere's Ride*. In his dramatic works, he cuts away the embellishments and focuses on writing for the stage: concise lines, dialogue that drives the action, and no space for lyricism. This reveals a less recognized but truly talented side of him.
Longfellow sticks to the historical account: Corey is pressed to death. The play concludes with his execution, and his last act of defiance — famously declaring "more weight" as the stones were stacked upon him — serves as the moral peak. Longfellow presents this as a stand of conscience against an unfair system.
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