MARCH by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Summary, Meaning & Analysis
March is a single-stanza poem where the month itself voices its frustration.
The poem
I Martius am! Once first, and now the third! To lead the Year was my appointed place; A mortal dispossessed me by a word, And set there Janus with the double face. Hence I make war on all the human race; I shake the cities with my hurricanes; I flood the rivers and their banks efface, And drown the farms and hamlets with my rains.
March is a single-stanza poem where the month itself voices its frustration. Once the first month of the year, March is furious after a Roman ruler demoted it to third place, handing the crown to January. In retaliation, March unleashes storms, floods, and hurricanes upon humanity. It’s like a mythological temper tantrum masquerading as a weather forecast.
Line-by-line
I Martius am! Once first, and now the third!
Tone & mood
The tone is both indignant and theatrical. March talks like a dethroned king — loud, full of himself, and ready for a fight. Beneath it all lies a dark humor, since the "revenge" March talks about is really just typical stormy weather. This makes his grand rage feel amusing and surprisingly relatable. Longfellow maintains a straight face the whole time, which enhances the comedy.
Symbols & metaphors
- Janus with the double face — Janus is the Roman god of beginnings and doorways, often shown with two faces gazing in opposite directions. In this context, he symbolizes January, the month that took March's place at the start of the year. The "double face" suggests a sense of duplicity — to March, Janus appears as a usurper who can't even face one direction truthfully.
- Hurricanes and floods — The storms that March brings are both real (March weather is known for being unpredictable) and a reflection of wounded pride manifesting as destructive force. The turmoil of the weather echoes March's emotional upheaval — unable to reclaim its place in the calendar, it lashes out at the world instead.
- The mortal who dispossessed March — This unnamed figure refers to the Roman king Numa Pompilius, who reformed the calendar around 713 BCE and added January and February, moving March from first to third. Referring to him as "a mortal" highlights the audacity of a human being able to challenge a cosmic order — and do so with nothing more than "a word," a decree.
Historical context
Longfellow wrote a series of short poems that give each month a unique personality, and "March" is one of them. He was part of a long tradition of calendar poetry that dates back to classical times, but instead of just focusing on the weather or farming themes, he allowed each month to express its own character and voice.
The poem's historical details are spot on. The earliest Roman calendar, credited to Romulus, had ten months and started in March. Later, King Numa Pompilius added January and February, pushing March to the third position. January is named after Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings — a move that March, named for Mars the god of war, seems to have never quite accepted.
Longfellow published these poems about the months in the 1870s, towards the end of his career, when he was exploring different personas and voices. The poem itself consists of a single eight-line stanza in iambic pentameter with an ABABBCBC rhyme scheme, which gives it a neat, structured form that contrasts effectively with the energetic content.
FAQ
It's a dramatic monologue delivered by the month of March. March expresses its anger over being moved from the first month of the Roman calendar to third place after a king reformed the calendar, placing January at the top. In retaliation, March unleashes storms and floods upon humanity.
The poem doesn't mention him by name, but Longfellow is talking about Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome. He is often credited with reforming the Roman calendar around 713 BCE by adding January and February at the start of the year, which moved March from the first position to the third.
Janus is the Roman god associated with beginnings, transitions, and doorways. He’s typically shown with two faces that look in opposite directions—one facing the past and the other the future. The month of January is named after him. March refers to him as "double-faced," both as a literal description of his appearance and as a jab, suggesting that Janus is untrustworthy.
The poem consists of one eight-line stanza crafted in iambic pentameter. It follows an ABABBCBC rhyme scheme, with the B rhyme ("place / face / race / efface") weaving through the middle, creating a unifying thread. This strict structure offers a striking contrast to the poem's wild and tumultuous themes.
Yes, the core history is accurate. The early Roman calendar indeed started in March before it was reformed to begin in January. The fact that Janus is placed at the start of the year has historical roots — January literally translates to "month of Janus." Longfellow draws on authentic Roman calendrical history as the foundation of the poem.
Because it was a human—a mortal king—who demoted March to begin with. March's anger is aimed at humanity as a whole because it was human actions that disrupted what March believes is its rightful place in the cosmos. The storms and floods are March's way of retaliating against the species that caused its demotion.
There's a comic aspect to this for sure. The notion of a month having a centuries-long meltdown over a calendar change, and showing that meltdown through typical spring storms, is just plain silly. Longfellow approaches it seriously, which adds to the humor. At the same time, the poem serves as a real mythological explanation for the wild and erratic weather we see in March.
The poem turns the usual power dynamic on its head. Typically, we see humans as the ones who manage and shape the natural world — but in this case, a human king actually reorganized the calendar. March's response illustrates that nature isn't going to accept that change without a fight. The storms represent nature pushing back against human order, a theme that Longfellow revisits in many of his works.