America's Welcome Home
Oh, gallantly they fared forth in khaki and in blue,America's crusading host of warriors bold and true;They battled for the rights of man beside our brave Allies,And now they're coming home to us with glory in their eyes.
Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me!Our hearts are turning home again and there we long to be,In our beautiful big country beyond the ocean bars,Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.
Our boys have seen the Old World as none have seen before.They know the grisly horror of the German gods of war:The noble faith of Britain and the hero-heart of France,The soul of Belgium's fortitude and Italy's romance.
They bore our country's great word across the rolling sea,"America swears brotherhood with all the just and free."They wrote that word victorious on fields of mortal strife,And many a valiant lad was proud to seal it with his life.
Oh, welcome home in Heaven's peace, dear spirits of the dead!And welcome home ye living sons America hath bred!The lords of war are beaten down, your glorious task is done;You fought to make the whole world free, and the victory is won.
Now it's home again, and home again, our hearts are turning west,Of all the lands beneath the sun America is best.We're going home to our own folks, beyond the ocean bars,Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.
Words in this poem
- gallantly adv.
- In a polite or courtly manner; like a gallant or wooer.
- crusading a.
- Of or pertaining to a crusade; as, a crusading spirit.
- fortitude n.
- Power to resist attack; strength; firmness. [L. fortitudo, fr. fortis strong. See Fort.]
- wrote v. i.
- To root with the snout. See 1st Root. [OE. wroten. See 1st Root.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
America's Welcome Home 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, America's Welcome Home, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/america-s-welcome-home.html, id L22949.
Form and metre
America's Welcome Home is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 AABB blueA · trueA · alliesB · eyesB
- 2 AABB meA · beA · barsB · starsB
- 3 AABB beforeA · warA · franceB · romanceB
- 4 AABB seaA · freeA · strifeB · lifeB
- 5 AABB deadA · bredA · doneB · wonB
- 6 AABB westA · bestA · barsB · starsB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, gallantly they fared forth in khaki and in blue, | 14 | ·/˘˘··˘··/˘··· |
| America's crusading host of warriors bold and true; | 15 | ˘/˘˘˘/˘··/˘˘··· |
| They battled for the rights of man beside our brave Allies, | 15 | ·/˘·····˘//˘·/˘ |
| And now they're coming home to us with glory in their eyes. | 14 | ···/˘····/˘··· |
| Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me! | 15 | ···˘/··˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| Our hearts are turning home again and there we long to be, | 15 | /˘··/˘·˘/······ |
| In our beautiful big country beyond the ocean bars, | 15 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘···/˘· |
| Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars. | 15 | ······/········ |
| Our boys have seen the Old World as none have seen before. | 14 | /˘············ |
| They know the grisly horror of the German gods of war: | 14 | ···/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| The noble faith of Britain and the hero-heart of France, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘··· |
| The soul of Belgium's fortitude and Italy's romance. | 14 | ···/˘/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| They bore our country's great word across the rolling sea, | 14 | ··/˘/˘··˘/·/˘· |
| "America swears brotherhood with all the just and free." | 14 | ˘/˘˘·/˘······· |
| They wrote that word victorious on fields of mortal strife, | 14 | ····˘/˘˘···/˘· |
| And many a valiant lad was proud to seal it with his life. | 15 | ·/˘·/˘········· |
| Oh, welcome home in Heaven's peace, dear spirits of the dead! | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘··· |
| And welcome home ye living sons America hath bred! | 14 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/˘˘·· |
| The lords of war are beaten down, your glorious task is done; | 15 | ·····/˘··/˘˘··· |
| You fought to make the whole world free, and the victory is won. | 15 | ··········/˘˘·· |
| Now it's home again, and home again, our hearts are turning west, | 15 | ···˘/··˘//··/˘· |
| Of all the lands beneath the sun America is best. | 14 | ········˘/˘˘·· |
| We're going home to our own folks, beyond the ocean bars, | 15 | ·/˘··/˘·····/˘· |
| Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars. | 15 | ······/········ |
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.