A Mile with Me
O who will walk a mile with meAlong life's merry way?A comrade blithe and full of glee,Who dares to laugh out loud and free,And let his frolic fancy play,Like a happy child, through the flowers gayThat fill the field and fringe the wayWhere he walks a mile with me.
And who will walk a mile with meAlong life's weary way?A friend whose heart has eyes to seeThe stars shine out o'er the darkening lea,And the quiet rest at the end o' the day,--A friend who knows, and dares to say,The brave, sweet words that cheer the wayWhere he walks a mile with me.
With such a comrade, such a friend,I fain would walk till journeys end,Through summer sunshine, winter rain,And then?--Farewell, we shall meet again!
Words in this poem
- blithe a.
- Gay; merry; sprightly; joyous; glad; cheerful; as, a blithe spirit. [AS. bli blithe, kind; akin to Goth. blei kind, Icel. bli mild, gentle, Dan. & Sw. blid gentle, D. blijd blithe, OHG. blidi kind, blithe.]
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- 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
A Mile with Me is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, A Mile with Me, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/a-mile-with-me.html, id L22799.
Form and metre
A Mile with Me is 20 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAABBBA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABAABBBA meA · wayB · gleeA · freeA · playB · gayB · wayB · meA
- 2 ABAABBBA meA · wayB · seeA · leaA · dayB · sayB · wayB · meA
- 3 AABB friendA · endA · rainB · againB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O who will walk a mile with me | 8 | ········ |
| Along life's merry way? | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| A comrade blithe and full of glee, | 8 | ·/······ |
| Who dares to laugh out loud and free, | 8 | ········ |
| And let his frolic fancy play, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Like a happy child, through the flowers gay | 9 | ··/˘···/· |
| That fill the field and fringe the way | 8 | ········ |
| Where he walks a mile with me. | 7 | ······· |
| And who will walk a mile with me | 8 | ········ |
| Along life's weary way? | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| A friend whose heart has eyes to see | 8 | ········ |
| The stars shine out o'er the darkening lea, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And the quiet rest at the end o' the day,-- | 10 | ··/······· |
| A friend who knows, and dares to say, | 8 | ········ |
| The brave, sweet words that cheer the way | 8 | ········ |
| Where he walks a mile with me. | 7 | ······· |
| With such a comrade, such a friend, | 8 | ···/···· |
| I fain would walk till journeys end, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Through summer sunshine, winter rain, | 8 | ·/˘/·/˘· |
| And then?--Farewell, we shall meet again! | 9 | ···/···˘/ |
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.