The Children of the Lord's Supper

Quiz — The Children of the Lord's Supper by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1. Recall – Form & Context: What poetic meter does Longfellow use throughout The Children of the Lord's Supper, and what classical literary tradition does that meter connect the poem to?

1. Recall – Setting: On what Christian holiday does the poem's central ceremony take place, and in what country is the village community depicted?

1. Recall – Speaker & Tone: How would you characterize the overall tone of the poem? Identify at least two distinct emotional registers the tone moves through from opening to close.

1. Recall – Key Image: What object, standing for a century among the graves in the churchyard, serves as a symbol of the relentless passage of time? What does the poem's analysis say it contrasts with?

1. Comprehension – Symbols: The pastor uses an extended simile to describe prayer. What creature does he compare prayer to, and what does that comparison suggest about the nature of worship?

1. Comprehension – The Sermon's Message: According to the pastor's sermon, what two guides should the young confirmands take with them as they leave the safety of childhood and descend into the difficulties of adult life?

1. Comprehension – The Eucharist: When the pastor distributes Communion, what theological point does he stress about the bread and wine themselves? Where, according to him, does true Atonement actually reside?

1. Analysis – Death as Symbol: The poem personifies death in an unusual way, describing it as Love's twin brother. What effect does the analysis suggest this image is intended to have on the children, and how does it reframe a conventional fear?

1. Analysis – Structural Climax: The pastor makes a spontaneous decision that accelerates the poem toward its emotional climax. What is that decision, and why is its spontaneity significant to the poem's themes of love and grace?

1. Analysis – Translation & Purpose: The Children of the Lord's Supper is a translation of a Swedish original. Based on the historical and biographical context provided, what was Longfellow's broader cultural aim in translating this poem, and how does the choice of elevated meter serve that aim?

Answer Key

1. Longfellow uses the hexameter, the meter of Homer and Virgil, connecting the poem to the epic tradition of classical antiquity and lending a village ceremony the weight of universal significance.

1. The ceremony takes place on Pentecost Sunday in a rural Swedish village.

1. The tone is ceremonial and warmly devotional. It begins bright and festive (spring imagery, birdsong), shifts into solemnity at the altar, and resolves in tender emotional directness — moving through celebration, awe, and heartfelt grief.

1. A sundial standing among the graves symbolizes time's relentless passage. The analysis says it contrasts with the single shining day of spiritual commitment taking place around it.

1. The pastor compares prayer to a carrier pigeon that flies ceaselessly between earth and sky. This suggests prayer is a living, purposeful, and intimate act — a personal connection that always finds its way home to God.

1. The two guides the pastor urges the children to take are Prayer and Innocence.

1. The pastor stresses that the bread and wine are not magical in themselves; true Atonement resides in the sacred heart, not in the physical elements.

1. By calling death Love's twin brother — a serious but gentle sibling who guides the soul to God — the poem aims to transform the children's fear of death into a misunderstanding corrected by faith, repositioning death as something familiar and ultimately loving rather than terrifying.

1. The pastor spontaneously decides to offer the children Communion immediately rather than waiting until the following Sunday. The spontaneity signals that love and grace cannot be scheduled or delayed — it reflects the very themes of mercy and divine love the sermon has just proclaimed.

1. As a Harvard professor of modern languages, Longfellow sought to introduce European Romantic literature to American readers. By choosing the grand hexameter, he elevated a quiet Lutheran village rite to the level of epic poetry, arguing implicitly that this spiritual ceremony deserved the same dignified attention as the great works of Western literature.