The Entry into Jerusalem

Quiz — "The Entry into Jerusalem" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1. Recall – Form & Context: What larger dramatic work does "The Entry into Jerusalem" come from, and which section of that work does it belong to?

1. Recall – Speaker & Framing: Who narrates or performs the story within the poem, and where are they located as they tell it?

1. Recall – Biblical Source: Which Gospel story does the poem retell, and who is the central figure of that story?

1. Recall – Greek Phrases: Longfellow weaves original Greek phrases from the New Testament throughout the poem. Identify the three meanings those Greek phrases convey, as described in the analysis.

1. Comprehension – The Crowd's Role: How does the crowd behave toward Bartimeus, and what irony does Longfellow highlight through their behavior?

1. Comprehension – The Final Stanza's Shift: How does the poem's tone change in its final stanza, and who becomes the direct subject of the poem's challenge?

1. Analysis – Symbolism of Blindness: According to the analysis, what does Bartimeus's physical blindness represent on a broader, thematic level, and how does the poem's ending extend this symbolism?

1. Analysis – The Gates of Jericho: What do the gates of Jericho symbolize in the poem, and how does that symbolism relate to Bartimeus's situation at the poem's opening?

1. Analysis – The Framing Device: Why is it significant that the story is told by a Gentile mother and daughter on a rooftop in Jerusalem? What does their perspective add to the poem's themes?

1. Analysis – Form and Historical Context: Why did Longfellow choose to blend an English ballad form with authentic Greek scripture, and how does that choice reflect the historical and cultural moment in which he was writing?

Answer Key

1. The poem is an excerpt from Christus: A Mystery (1872), specifically the first section, The Divine Tragedy, which dramatizes scenes from the Gospels.

1. The story is narrated by a young girl (a daughter), who is on a rooftop in Jerusalem alongside her mother — both of them Syro-Phoenician Gentile outsiders.

1. The poem retells the story of Blind Bartimeus from the Gospel of Mark (10:46–52); the central figure is Bartimeus, a blind beggar seated outside Jericho.

1. The three Greek phrases mean: (1) "Jesus, have mercy on me," (2) "Take heart, rise up, he is calling thee," and (3) "Thy faith hath made thee whole."

1. The crowd tries to silence Bartimeus, attempting to prevent him from calling out to Jesus. The irony is that those physically closest to the miracle are the very ones who nearly stop it from happening.

1. In the final stanza the tone shifts from storytelling to a direct, sermonic address; the reader (or listener) becomes the subject of the poem's challenge — the one who may be truly blind despite having physical sight.

1. Bartimeus's blindness symbolizes any condition — spiritual, moral, or emotional — in which a person fails to perceive what is true or good. The ending extends this by suggesting that someone with physical sight who still cannot recognize what truly matters is more deeply blind than Bartimeus ever was.

1. Jericho's gates symbolize the boundary between exclusion and inclusion — between the world Bartimeus is trapped in and the new life he is on the threshold of entering. They represent hope, the possibility of crossing from darkness into belonging.

1. The Syro-Phoenician mother and daughter were once themselves excluded from Jewish religious life, so their retelling of the story emphasizes that the message of mercy and faith transcends ethnic and social boundaries, reinforcing the poem's themes of inclusion and redemption.

1. Longfellow blended the popular ballad form with authentic Greek scripture to show that poetry could bridge the emotional and the intellectual, the accessible and the sacred. Writing during a period of religious upheaval — following Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) — he used this fusion to reaffirm faith in a way that felt both intellectually credible and spiritually resonant.