At the Memorial Meeting
We knew you well, dear Yorick of the West,The very soul of large and friendly jest!You loved and mocked the broad grotesque of thingsIn this new world where all the folk are kings.
Your breezy humour cleared the air, with sportOf shams that haunt the democratic court;For even where the sovereign people rule,A human monarch needs a royal fool.
Your native drawl lent flavour to your wit;Your arrows lingered but they always hit;Homeric mirth around the circle ran,But left no wound upon the heart of man.
We knew you kind in trouble, brave in pain;We saw your honour kept without a stain;We read this lesson of our Yorick's years,--True wisdom comes with laughter and with tears.
Words in this poem
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
- folk 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.]
- breezy a.
- Characterized by, or having, breezes; airy.
- humour n.
- Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L. humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist. See Humid.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- drawl v. t.
- To utter in a slow, lengthened tone. [Prob. fr. draw: cf. D. dralen to linger, tarry, Icel. dralla to loiter. See Draw, and cf. Draggle.]
- flavour n.
- That quality of anything which affects the smell; odor; fragrances; as, the flavor of a rose. [OF. fleur, flaur (two syllables), odor, cf. F. fleurer to emit an odor, It. flatore a bad odor, prob. fr. L. flare to bow, whence the sense of exhalation. Cf. B]
- homeric a.
- Of or pertaining to Homer, the most famous of Greek poets; resembling the poetry of Homer. Homeric verse, hexameter verse; -- so called because used by Homer in his epics.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At the Memorial Meeting 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, At the Memorial Meeting, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/at-the-memorial-meeting.html, id L22875.
Form and metre
At the Memorial Meeting is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 westA · jestA · thingsB · kingsB
- 2 AABB sportA · courtA · ruleB · foolB
- 3 AABB witA · hitA · ranB · manB
- 4 AABB painA · stainA · yearsB · tearsB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We knew you well, dear Yorick of the West, | 10 | ·········· |
| The very soul of large and friendly jest! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| You loved and mocked the broad grotesque of things | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| In this new world where all the folk are kings. | 10 | ·········· |
| Your breezy humour cleared the air, with sport | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Of shams that haunt the democratic court; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| For even where the sovereign people rule, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| A human monarch needs a royal fool. | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| Your native drawl lent flavour to your wit; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Your arrows lingered but they always hit; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/·· |
| Homeric mirth around the circle ran, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| But left no wound upon the heart of man. | 10 | ·········· |
| We knew you kind in trouble, brave in pain; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| We saw your honour kept without a stain; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| We read this lesson of our Yorick's years,-- | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| True wisdom comes with laughter and with tears. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
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.