BY GUSTAV PFIZER by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Summary, Meaning & Analysis
A wandering young man dreams of having a wife and child, only to lose them both to death.
The poem
A youth, light-hearted and content, I wander through the world Here, Arab-like, is pitched my tent And straight again is furled. Yet oft I dream, that once a wife Close in my heart was locked, And in the sweet repose of life A blessed child I rocked. I wake! Away that dream,--away! Too long did it remain! So long, that both by night and day It ever comes again. The end lies ever in my thought; To a grave so cold and deep The mother beautiful was brought; Then dropt the child asleep. But now the dream is wholly o'er, I bathe mine eyes and see; And wander through the world once more, A youth so light and free. Two locks--and they are wondrous fair-- Left me that vision mild; The brown is from the mother's hair, The blond is from the child. And when I see that lock of gold, Pale grows the evening-red; And when the dark lock I behold, I wish that I were dead.
A wandering young man dreams of having a wife and child, only to lose them both to death. Upon waking, he holds two locks of hair—one brown from the mother and one blond from the child—which fill him with deep sorrow. This poem, translated by Longfellow from a German original, illustrates how a single object can embody a whole universe of grief.
Line-by-line
A youth, light-hearted and content, / I wander through the world
Yet oft I dream, that once a wife / Close in my heart was locked,
I wake! Away that dream,--away! / Too long did it remain!
The end lies ever in my thought; / To a grave so cold and deep
But now the dream is wholly o'er, / I bathe mine eyes and see;
Two locks--and they are wondrous fair-- / Left me that vision mild;
And when I see that lock of gold, / Pale grows the evening-red;
Tone & mood
The tone unfolds in a thoughtful progression. It begins with a sense of lightness—almost like a confident traveler—before shifting into a dreamy state, and then tightening into anguish. By the last stanza, any hint of freedom has vanished. The poem's gentle, ballad-like rhythm maintains a surface-level control of emotion, making the final confession ('I wish that I were dead') hit much harder than if the poem had been lamenting from the beginning.
Symbols & metaphors
- The tent — The quickly pitched and furled tent reflects the speaker's life of being rootless and unattached. It suggests freedom, yet also highlights the lack of a home and permanence—a life where he believes he has nothing to lose.
- The two locks of hair — The brown and blond locks serve as the poem's main symbols. They represent tangible evidence of love and loss, connecting the dream world with reality. In the 19th century, it was common to keep a lock of hair from a deceased loved one as a mourning practice, making this image particularly relatable for Longfellow's readers.
- The fading evening-red — The sunset fades when the speaker gazes at the child's lock of hair, symbolizing the beauty and life that are slipping away. The natural world reflects his deep sorrow — even the sky seems to lose its vibrancy.
- The dream — The dream is both a safe haven and a source of anguish. It offers the speaker a glimpse of a life filled with love and family, yet it inevitably concludes in death. The poem leaves readers uncertain about whether the wife and child truly existed or were just figments of imagination, turning the dream into a symbol of unfulfilled desire.
Historical context
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translated this poem from the work of German poet Gustav Pfizer (1807–1890), who was part of the Swabian School of Romantic poetry. Longfellow had a strong connection to German literature throughout his life; he taught modern languages at Harvard and translated works from German, Spanish, Italian, and more. This poem was published during a time when keeping mourning hair was a common Victorian and Romantic custom, with lockets and brooches containing strands from deceased loved ones being popular mementos. Longfellow experienced profound personal loss himself: his first wife, Mary, passed away in 1835, and his second wife, Frances, died in a fire in 1861. His translations of sorrowful German poetry were not just academic pursuits — they provided him with a way to express his own grief.
FAQ
It’s Longfellow's English translation of a poem by the German Romantic poet Gustav Pfizer. Longfellow was a prolific translator who frequently published translated poems alongside his original pieces. The emotional choices in the English version — including the word order, rhythm, and emphasis on specific images — reflect Longfellow’s style, even though the original idea belongs to Pfizer.
The poem intentionally leaves this point open to interpretation. The speaker mentions he 'dreams' of having had a wife and child, hinting that they might be figments of his imagination. However, he wakes up with two actual locks of hair — one brown and one blond — that have crossed over from the dream world into reality. The poem doesn’t provide clarity on this, and that lingering uncertainty is key to its impact. It’s designed to make you feel uneasy.
It’s a simile that likens the speaker's wandering lifestyle to that of a Bedouin nomad who quickly sets up a tent in one spot before moving on. This imagery was popular in 19th-century European Romantic poetry, symbolizing freedom and lack of roots. It portrays the speaker as someone without a permanent home or family, making the longing for a domestic life feel even more bittersweet.
The sight of the mother's brown hair evokes a grief so intense that the speaker feels a desire to escape life altogether. The poem has been leading up to this moment — the carefree wanderer was merely a facade hiding deep loss. The final line completely removes that facade. It's not about making a plan to end things, but rather an expression of grief so profound that simply existing feels too much to bear.
Brown hair belongs to the mother, and blond hair to the child. This color difference gives each lock its own identity and keeps the grief from feeling abstract—every strand connects to a specific person. Blond hair on a child evokes a classic Romantic image of innocence, while the mother’s brown hair carries a more grounded, adult significance. This contrast reflects the two distinct losses that the speaker is grappling with.
The poem adopts a ballad-like stanza structure: four lines with alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, following an ABAB rhyme scheme. This mirrors the classic format of traditional English or Scottish ballads. The simplicity and song-like quality of the form prevent the emotion from becoming overly dramatic—this restraint intensifies the impact of the final confession of wanting to die.
Longfellow experienced the profound loss of two wives. His first wife, Mary, passed away after a miscarriage in 1835, and his second wife, Frances, tragically died in 1861 when her dress caught fire. Throughout his career, he translated numerous works of German Romantic poetry, and themes of grief and loss clearly struck a personal chord with him. Selecting this specific poem—focused on a man haunted by the deaths of his wife and child—wasn't just an academic choice; it was deeply personal.
It refers to a child dying. "Dropt asleep" softens the reality of death by likening it to simply falling asleep, which was a common way to describe a child's death in 19th-century poetry. The tenderness of the phrase makes it even more poignant—the contrast between the gentle language and the harsh truth adds to the stanza's emotional impact.