Angler's Fireside Song
Oh, the angler's path is a very merry way,And his road through the world is bright;For he lives with the laughing stream all day,And he lies by the fire at night.
Sing hey nonny, ho nonnyAnd likewise well-a-day!The angler's life is a very jolly lifeAnd that's what the anglers say!
Oh, the angler plays for the pleasure of the game,And his creel may be full or light,But the tale that he tells will be just the sameWhen he lies by the fire at night.
Sing hey nonny, ho nonnyAnd likewise well-a-day!We love the fire and the music of the lyre,And that's what the anglers say!
Words in this poem
- nonny n.
- A silly fellow; a ninny.
- creel n.
- An osier basket, such as anglers use. [Gael. craidhleag basket, creel.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Angler's Fireside Song 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, Angler's Fireside Song, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/angler-s-fireside-song.html, id L23001.
Form and metre
Angler's Fireside Song is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
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 ABAB wayA · brightB · dayA · nightB
- 2 -A-A nonny · dayA · life · sayA
- 3 ABAB gameA · lightB · sameA · nightB
- 4 -A-A nonny · dayA · lyre · sayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, the angler's path is a very merry way, | 12 | ··/˘···/˘/˘· |
| And his road through the world is bright; | 8 | ········ |
| For he lives with the laughing stream all day, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And he lies by the fire at night. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Sing hey nonny, ho nonny | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| And likewise well-a-day! | 6 | ·/···· |
| The angler's life is a very jolly life | 11 | ·/˘···/˘/˘· |
| And that's what the anglers say! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Oh, the angler plays for the pleasure of the game, | 12 | ··/˘···/˘··· |
| And his creel may be full or light, | 8 | ········ |
| But the tale that he tells will be just the same | 11 | ··········· |
| When he lies by the fire at night. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Sing hey nonny, ho nonny | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| And likewise well-a-day! | 6 | ·/···· |
| We love the fire and the music of the lyre, | 11 | ···/··/˘··· |
| And that's what the anglers say! | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.