Departure
Oh, why are you shining so bright, big Sun,And why is the garden so gay?Do you know that my days of delight are done,Do you know I am going away?If you covered your face with a cloud, I'd dreamYou were sorry for me in my pain,And the heavily drooping flowers would seemTo be weeping with me in the rain.
But why is your head so low, sweet heart,And why are your eyes overcast?Are you crying because you know we must part,Do you think this embrace is our last?Then kiss me again, and again, and again,Look up as you bid me good-bye!For your face is too dear for the stain of a tear,And your smile is the sun in my sky.
Words in this poem
- overcast v. t.
- To cast or cover over; hence, to cloud; to darken.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Departure 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, Departure, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/departure.html, id L22818.
Form and metre
Departure is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCDCD sunA · gayB · doneA · awayB · dreamC · painD · seemC · rainD
- 2 ABAB-C-C heartA · overcastB · partA · lastB · again · byeC · tear · skyC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, why are you shining so bright, big Sun, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And why is the garden so gay? | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Do you know that my days of delight are done, | 11 | ·······˘/·· |
| Do you know I am going away? | 9 | ·····/˘˘/ |
| If you covered your face with a cloud, I'd dream | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| You were sorry for me in my pain, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And the heavily drooping flowers would seem | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘/·· |
| To be weeping with me in the rain. | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| But why is your head so low, sweet heart, | 9 | ········· |
| And why are your eyes overcast? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Are you crying because you know we must part, | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Do you think this embrace is our last? | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Then kiss me again, and again, and again, | 11 | ···˘/·˘/·˘/ |
| Look up as you bid me good-bye! | 8 | ········ |
| For your face is too dear for the stain of a tear, | 12 | ············ |
| And your smile is the sun in my sky. | 9 | ········· |
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.