Christmas Tears
The day returns by which we date our years:Day of the joy of giving,--that means love;Day of the joy of living,--that means hope;Day of the Royal Child,--and day that bringsTo older hearts the gift of Christmas tears!
Look, how the candles twinkle through the tree,The children shout when baby claps his hands,The room is full of laughter and of song!Your lips are smiling, dearest,--tell me whyYour eyes are brimming full of Christmas tears?
Was it a silent voice that joined the song?A vanished face that glimmered once againAmong the happy circle round the tree?Was it an unseen hand that touched your cheekAnd brought the secret gift of Christmas tears?
Not dark and angry like the winter stormOf selfish grief,--but full of starry gleams,And soft and still that others may not weep,--Dews of remembered happiness descendTo bless us with the gift of Christmas tears.
Ah, lose them not, dear heart,--life has no pearlsMore pure than memories of joy love-shared.See, while we count them one by one with prayer,The Heavenly hope that lights the Christmas treeHas made a rainbow in our Christmas tears!
Words in this poem
- twinkle v. i.
- To open and shut the eye rapidly; to blink; to wink. [OE. twinklen, AS. twinclian; akin to OE. twinken to blink, wink, G. zwinken, zwinkern, and perhaps to E. twitch.]
- claps v. t.
- Variant of Clasp
- brimming a.
- Full to the brim; overflowing.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Christmas Tears 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, Christmas Tears, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/christmas-tears.html, id L22863.
Form and metre
Christmas Tears is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 A---A yearsA · love · hope · brings · tearsA
- 2 A--A- treeA · hands · song · whyA · tears
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The day returns by which we date our years: | 10 | ··˘/····/· |
| Day of the joy of giving,--that means love; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Day of the joy of living,--that means hope; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Day of the Royal Child,--and day that brings | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To older hearts the gift of Christmas tears! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Look, how the candles twinkle through the tree, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The children shout when baby claps his hands, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The room is full of laughter and of song! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Your lips are smiling, dearest,--tell me why | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Your eyes are brimming full of Christmas tears? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Was it a silent voice that joined the song? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A vanished face that glimmered once again | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Among the happy circle round the tree? | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Was it an unseen hand that touched your cheek | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| And brought the secret gift of Christmas tears? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Not dark and angry like the winter storm | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of selfish grief,--but full of starry gleams, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And soft and still that others may not weep,-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Dews of remembered happiness descend | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| To bless us with the gift of Christmas tears. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Ah, lose them not, dear heart,--life has no pearls | 10 | ·········· |
| More pure than memories of joy love-shared. | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| See, while we count them one by one with prayer, | 10 | ·········· |
| The Heavenly hope that lights the Christmas tree | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Has made a rainbow in our Christmas 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.