Laurel · Mary E. Burt · Poems Every Child Should Know

The Landing of the Pilgrims

Mary E. Burt (1850–1918) · 1904

short measure · ABAB · 40 lines · from Poems Every Child Should Know

The breaking waves dashed highOn a stern and rock-bound coast,And the woods against a stormy skyTheir giant branches tossed.

And the heavy night hung darkThe hills and waters o’er,When a band of exiles moored their barkOn the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes,They, the true-hearted, came;Not with the roll of the stirring drums,And the trumpet that sings of fame.

Not as the flying come,In silence and in fear;They shook the depths of the desert gloomWith their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amid the storm they sang,And the stars heard, and the sea,And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rangTo the anthem of the free!

The ocean eagle soaredFrom his nest by the white wave’s foam;And the rocking pines of the forest roared,--This was their welcome home!

There were men with hoary hair,Amid that pilgrim band;Why had they come to wither there,Away from their childhood’s land?

There was woman’s fearless eye,Lit by her deep love’s truth;There was manhood’s brow serenely high,And the fiery heart of youth.

What sought they thus afar?Bright jewels of the mine?The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?--They sought a faith’s pure shrine!

Ay! call it holy ground,The soil where first they trod:They have left unstained what there they found,Freedom to worship God.

Words in this poem

shook v. t.: To pack, as staves, in a shook.
amid prep.: In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
anthem v. t.: To celebrate with anthems.
hoary a.: White or whitish."The hoary willows."
childhood n.: The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
serenely adv.: In a serene manner; clearly.
afar adv.: At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
wealth n.: Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The Landing of the Pilgrims is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Mary E. Burt, The Landing of the Pilgrims, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/the-landing-of-the-pilgrims.html, id L25285.

Form and metre

The Landing of the Pilgrims is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).

See other poems in short measure.

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 ABAB high^A · coast^B · sky^A · tossed^B
2 ABAB dark^A · o'er^B · bark^A · shore^B
3 ABAB comes^A · came^B · drums^A · fame^B
4 ABAB come^A · fear^B · gloom^A · cheer^B
5 ABAB sang^A · sea^B · rang^A · free^B
6 ABAB soared^A · foam^B · roared^A · home^B
7 ABAB hair^A · band^B · there^A · land^B
8 ABAB eye^A · truth^B · high^A · youth^B
9 ABAB afar^A · mine^B · war^A · shrine^B
10 ABAB ground^A · trod^B · found^A · god^B

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 short measure. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
The breaking waves dashed high	6	·/˘···
On a stern and rock-bound coast,	7	·······
And the woods against a stormy sky	9	······/˘·
Their giant branches tossed.	6	·/˘/˘·
And the heavy night hung dark	7	··/˘···
The hills and waters o’er,	6	···/˘·
When a band of exiles moored their bark	9	····/····
On the wild New England shore.	7	····/˘·
Not as the conqueror comes,	6	···/˘·
They, the true-hearted, came;	6	···/˘·
Not with the roll of the stirring drums,	9	······/˘·
And the trumpet that sings of fame.	8	··/˘····
Not as the flying come,	6	···/˘·
In silence and in fear;	6	·/˘···
They shook the depths of the desert gloom	9	······/˘·
With their hymns of lofty cheer.	7	····/˘·
Amid the storm they sang,	6	˘/····
And the stars heard, and the sea,	7	·······
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang	10	··/˘······
To the anthem of the free!	7	··/˘···
The ocean eagle soared	6	·/˘/˘·
From his nest by the white wave’s foam;	8	········
And the rocking pines of the forest roared,--	10	··/˘···/˘·
This was their welcome home!	6	···/˘·
There were men with hoary hair,	7	····/˘·
Amid that pilgrim band;	6	˘/·/˘·
Why had they come to wither there,	8	·····/˘·
Away from their childhood’s land?	7	˘/··/··
There was woman’s fearless eye,	7	··/˘/˘·
Lit by her deep love’s truth;	6	······
There was manhood’s brow serenely high,	9	··/··˘/˘·
And the fiery heart of youth.	7	··/˘···
What sought they thus afar?	6	····˘/
Bright jewels of the mine?	6	·/˘···
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?--	8	········
They sought a faith’s pure shrine!	6	······
Ay! call it holy ground,	6	···/˘·
The soil where first they trod:	6	······
They have left unstained what there they found,	9	···˘/····
Freedom to worship God.	6	/˘·/˘·

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.

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