To Hans Christian Andersen
We welcome you this wondrous summer-day,When childhood's dreams on earth are streaming,To bloom and sing, to brighten and to pale;A fairy-tale,A fairy-tale, our Northland all is seeming,And holds you in its arms a festal spaceWith grateful glee and whisperings face to face.Th' angelic noise,Sweet strains of children's joys,Bears you a moment to that homeWhence all our dreams, whence all our dreams have come.
We welcome you! Our nation all is young,Still in that age of dreams enthralling,When greatest things in fairy-tales are nursed,And he is first,And he is first, who hears his Lord's high calling.Of childhood's longings you the meaning know,And to the North a goal of greatness show.Your fantasyHas just that path made free,Where, past the small things that you hate,We yet shall find, we yet shall find the great.
Words in this poem
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- brighten v. t.
- To make bright or brighter; to make to shine; to increase the luster of; to give a brighter hue to.
- festal a.
- Of or pertaining to a holiday or a feast; joyous; festive. [L. festum holiday, feast. See feast.]
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- fantasy n.
- Fancy; imagination; especially, a whimsical or fanciful conception; a vagary of the imagination; whim; caprice; humor. [See Fancy.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Hans Christian Andersen is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, the Arthur Hubbell Palmer translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, To Hans Christian Andersen, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/to-hans-christian-andersen.html, id L29320.
Form and metre
To Hans Christian Andersen is 22 lines in 2 stanzas of 11 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -ABBACCDDEE day · streamingA · paleB · taleB · seemingA · spaceC · faceC · noiseD · joysD · homeE · comeE
- 2 AABBACC--DD youngA · enthrallingA · nursedB · firstB · callingA · knowC · showC · fantasy · free · hateD · greatD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We welcome you this wondrous summer-day, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| When childhood's dreams on earth are streaming, | 9 | ·/·····/˘ |
| To bloom and sing, to brighten and to pale; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A fairy-tale, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| A fairy-tale, our Northland all is seeming, | 11 | ·/˘·//···/˘ |
| And holds you in its arms a festal space | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With grateful glee and whisperings face to face. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Th' angelic noise, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Sweet strains of children's joys, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Bears you a moment to that home | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Whence all our dreams, whence all our dreams have come. | 10 | ··/···/··· |
| We welcome you! Our nation all is young, | 10 | ·/˘·//˘··· |
| Still in that age of dreams enthralling, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| When greatest things in fairy-tales are nursed, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And he is first, | 4 | ···· |
| And he is first, who hears his Lord's high calling. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Of childhood's longings you the meaning know, | 10 | ·/·/˘··/˘· |
| And to the North a goal of greatness show. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Your fantasy | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| Has just that path made free, | 6 | ······ |
| Where, past the small things that you hate, | 8 | ········ |
| We yet shall find, we yet shall find the great. | 10 | ·········· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.