Arrival
Across a thousand miles of sea, a hundred leagues of land,Along a path I had not traced and could not understand,I travelled fast and far for this,--to take thee by the hand.
A pilgrim knowing not the shrine where he would bend his knee,A mariner without a dream of what his port would be,So fared I with a seeking heart until I came to thee.
O cooler than a grove of palm in some heat-weary place,O fairer than an isle of calm after the wild sea race,The quiet room adorned with flowers where first I saw thy face!
Then furl the sail, let fall the oar, forget the paths of foam!The fate that made me wander far at last has brought me homeTo thee, dear haven of my heart, and I no more will roam.
Words in this poem
- cooler n.
- That which cools, or abates heat or excitement.
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
- furl v. t.
- To draw up or gather into close compass; to wrap or roll, as a sail, close to the yard, stay, or mast, or, as a flag, close to or around its staff, securing it there by a gasket or line. Totten. [Contr. fr. furdle, fr. fardel bundle: cf. F. ferler to furl, OF. fardeler to pack. See Furdle, Fardel, and cf. Farl.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Arrival 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, Arrival, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/arrival.html, id L22817.
Form and metre
Arrival is 12 lines in 4 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 AAA landA · understandA · handA
- 2 AAA kneeA · beA · theeA
- 3 AAA placeA · raceA · faceA
- 4 AAA foamA · homeA · roamA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Across a thousand miles of sea, a hundred leagues of land, | 14 | ˘/·/˘····/˘··· |
| Along a path I had not traced and could not understand, | 14 | ˘/··········˘/ |
| I travelled fast and far for this,--to take thee by the hand. | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| A pilgrim knowing not the shrine where he would bend his knee, | 14 | ·/˘/˘········· |
| A mariner without a dream of what his port would be, | 14 | ·/˘˘·········· |
| So fared I with a seeking heart until I came to thee. | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| O cooler than a grove of palm in some heat-weary place, | 14 | ·/˘········/˘· |
| O fairer than an isle of calm after the wild sea race, | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| The quiet room adorned with flowers where first I saw thy face! | 14 | ·/·˘/·/˘······ |
| Then furl the sail, let fall the oar, forget the paths of foam! | 14 | ········˘/···· |
| The fate that made me wander far at last has brought me home | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| To thee, dear haven of my heart, and I no more will roam. | 14 | ···/˘········· |
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.