Bitter-Sweet
Just to give up, and trustAll to a Fate unknown,Plodding along life's road in the dust,Bounded by walls of stone;Never to have a heart at peace;Never to see when care will cease;Just to be still when sorrows fall--This is the bitterest lesson of all.
Just to give up, and restAll on a Love secure,Out of a world that's hard at the best,Looking to heaven as sure;Ever to hope, through cloud and fear,In darkest night, that the dawn is near;Just to wait at the Master's feet--Surely, now, the bitter is sweet.
Words in this poem
- plodding a.
- Progressing in a slow, toilsome manner; characterized by laborious diligence; as, a plodding peddler; a plodding student; a man of plodding habits. --Plod"ding*ly, adv.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Bitter-Sweet 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, Bitter-Sweet, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/bitter-sweet.html, id L22847.
Form and metre
Bitter-Sweet is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCCDD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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 ABABCCDD trustA · unknownB · dustA · stoneB · peaceC · ceaseC · fallD · allD
- 2 ABABCCDD restA · secureB · bestA · sureB · fearC · nearC · feetD · sweetD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Just to give up, and trust | 6 | ······ |
| All to a Fate unknown, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Plodding along life's road in the dust, | 9 | /˘˘/····· |
| Bounded by walls of stone; | 6 | /˘···· |
| Never to have a heart at peace; | 8 | /˘······ |
| Never to see when care will cease; | 8 | /˘······ |
| Just to be still when sorrows fall-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| This is the bitterest lesson of all. | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘·· |
| Just to give up, and rest | 6 | ······ |
| All on a Love secure, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Out of a world that's hard at the best, | 9 | ········· |
| Looking to heaven as sure; | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| Ever to hope, through cloud and fear, | 8 | /˘······ |
| In darkest night, that the dawn is near; | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Just to wait at the Master's feet-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Surely, now, the bitter is sweet. | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
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.