Longfellow develops a complete moral and physical portrait of the village artisan:
- The Physical Titan: “Under a spreading chestnut-tree / The village smithy stands; / The smith, a mighty man is he, / With large and sinewy hands; / And the muscles of his brawny arms / Are strong as iron bands.” The blacksmith possesses formidable physical strength developed through decades of hard physical exertion.
- Moral Integrity and Independence: “His brow is wet with honest sweat, / He earns whate’er he can, / And looks the whole world in the face, / For he owes not any man.” Because he lives within his means and earns his bread through upright toil, he lives without fear, guilt, or debt, looking all people squarely in the eye.
- The Daily Grind: Morning till evening, his bellows roar like the ocean wind, and his heavy sledgehammer rings with slow, measured beat on the anvil, striking glowing iron into horseshoes and plowshares.
- Children’s Delight: Schoolchildren love peering through the open smithy door on their way home, fascinated by the fiery forge and catching burning sparks that fly “like chaff from a threshing-floor”.
- Family, Sorrow, and Faith: On Sundays, the smith attends church with his boys. Hearing his daughter’s sweet voice singing in the choir brings a tear to his tough cheek, reminding him of her departed mother resting peacefully in the grave. He wipes away the tear with his rough, hardened hand, balancing strength with deep domestic tenderheartedness.