The Ropewalk: A Poem About Boredom

The Ropewalk by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a poem about the things a man daydreams about while he is at work at a rope factory. He daydreams about the different things the rope he is making might be used for. A swing for girls to swing on, a rope for a tightrope walker to walk across high above an awed crowd, tied to a bucket in a well, and he even muses about the rope being used for gallows. What this poem is really about is escapism. Making rope probably wasn't a fun activity, winding pieces of twine together for hours on end was bound to become tedious. So, what does one do when faced with a boring and mindless task? Why, daydream of course! When you're doing something mundane, don't you let your mind wander as far from where you are as possible? During the Industrial Revolution many people worked in factories such as the one this poem is about, and I'm sure the employees of those factories used daydreaming as escapism. Romantic thought emphasized the power of imagination, and how it could be a useful tool for escapism. Not only is this poem about imagination, you have to use your imagination to read it. Each stanza paints a picture, so the poem is much easier to understand if you use your imagination and envision what Longfellow is trying to say.

"Then a booth of mountebanks,
With its smell of tan and planks,
And a girl poised high in air
On a cord, in spangled dress,
With a faded loveliness,
And a weary look of care."

I definitely had to use my imagination in order to understand what that was all about.