To America
What is the voice I hearOn the winds of the western sea?Sentinel, listen from out Cape ClearAnd say what the voice may be.’Tis a proud free people calling loud to a people proud and free.
And it says to them: “Kinsmen, hail!We severed have been too long.Now let us have done with a worn-out tale--The tale of an ancient wrong--And our friendship last long as our love doth and be strongerthan death is strong.”
Answer them, sons of the self-same race,And blood of the self-same clan;Let us speak with each other face to faceAnd answer as man to man,And loyally love and trust each other as none but free men can.
Now fling them out to the breeze,Shamrock, Thistle, and Rose,And the Star-spangled Banner unfurl with these--A message to friends and foesWherever the sails of peace are seen and wherever the war-wind blows--
A message to bond and thrall to wake,For wherever we come, we twain,The throne of the tyrant shall rock and quake,And his menace be void and vain;For you are lords of a strong land and we are lords of the main.
Yes, this is the voice of the bluff March gale;We severed have been too long,But now we have done with a worn-out tale--The tale of an ancient wrong--And our friendship last long as love doth last and strongerthan death is strong.
Words in this poem
- loyally adv.
- In a loyal manner; faithfully.
- shamrock n.
- A trifoliate plant used as a national emblem by the Irish. The legend is that St. Patrick once plucked a leaf of it for use in illustrating the doctrine of the trinity. [L. seamrog, seamar, trefoil, white clover, white honeysuckle; akin to Gael. seamrag.]
- unfurl v. t.
- To loose from a furled state; to unfold; to expand; to open or spread; as, to unfurl sails; to unfurl a flag. [1st pref. un- + furl.]
- wherever adv.
- At or in whatever place; wheresoever.
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- 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,]
- bluff a.
- Having a broad, flattened front; as, the bluff bows of a ship. [Cf. OD. blaf flat, broad, blaffaert one with a broad face, also, a boaster; or G. verblüffen to confuse, LG. bluffen to frighten; to unknown origin.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To America 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, To America, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/to-america.html, id L25336.
Form and metre
To America is 32 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABABB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABB hearA · seaB · clearA · beB · freeB
- 2 ABAB-B hailA · longB · taleA · wrongB · stronger · strongB
- 3 ABABB raceA · clanB · faceA · manB · canB
- 4 ABABB breezeA · roseB · theseA · foesB · blowsB
- 5 ABABB wakeA · twainB · quakeA · vainB · mainB
- 6 ABAB-B galeA · longB · taleA · wrongB · stronger · strongB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| What is the voice I hear | 6 | ······ |
| On the winds of the western sea? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Sentinel, listen from out Cape Clear | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| And say what the voice may be. | 7 | ······· |
| ’Tis a proud free people calling loud to a people proud and free. | 16 | ····/˘/˘···/˘··· |
| And it says to them: “Kinsmen, hail! | 8 | ········ |
| We severed have been too long. | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Now let us have done with a worn-out tale-- | 10 | ·········· |
| The tale of an ancient wrong-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And our friendship last long as our love doth and be stronger | 14 | ·//˘···/····/˘ |
| than death is strong.” | 4 | ···· |
| Answer them, sons of the self-same race, | 9 | /˘······· |
| And blood of the self-same clan; | 7 | ······· |
| Let us speak with each other face to face | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And answer as man to man, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And loyally love and trust each other as none but free men can. | 15 | ·/˘····/˘······ |
| Now fling them out to the breeze, | 7 | ······· |
| Shamrock, Thistle, and Rose, | 6 | /·/˘·· |
| And the Star-spangled Banner unfurl with these-- | 11 | ···/˘/˘˘/·· |
| A message to friends and foes | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Wherever the sails of peace are seen and wherever the war-wind blows-- | 17 | ˘/˘·······˘/˘···· |
| A message to bond and thrall to wake, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| For wherever we come, we twain, | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| The throne of the tyrant shall rock and quake, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And his menace be void and vain; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| For you are lords of a strong land and we are lords of the main. | 15 | ··············· |
| Yes, this is the voice of the bluff March gale; | 10 | ·········· |
| We severed have been too long, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| But now we have done with a worn-out tale-- | 10 | ·········· |
| The tale of an ancient wrong-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And our friendship last long as love doth last and stronger | 13 | ·//˘·······/˘ |
| than death is strong. | 4 | ···· |
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.