Edmund Clarence Stedman
Oh, quick to feel the lightest touchOf beauty or of truth,Rich in the thoughtfulness of age,The hopefulness of youth,The courage of the gentle heart,The wisdom of the pure,The strength of finely tempered soulsTo labour and endure!
The blue of springtime in your eyesWas never quenched by pain;And winter brought your head the crownOf snow without a stain.The poet's mind, the prince's heart,You kept until the end,Nor ever faltered in your work,Nor ever failed a friend.
You followed, through the quest of life,The light that shines aboveThe tumult and the toil of men,And shows us what to love.Right loyal to the best you knew,Reality or dream,You ran the race, you fought the fight,A follower of the Gleam.
We lay upon your folded handsThe wreath of asphodel;We speak above your peaceful faceThe tender word Farewell!For well you fare, in God's good care,Somewhere within the blue,And know, to-day, your dearest dreamsAre true,--and true,--and true!
Words in this poem
- springtime n.
- The season of spring; springtide.
- asphodel n.
- A general name for a plant of the genus Asphodelus. The asphodels are hardy perennial plants, several species of which are cultivated for the beauty of their flowers. [L. asphodelus, Gr. Daffodil.]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Edmund Clarence Stedman 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, Edmund Clarence Stedman, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/edmund-clarence-stedman.html, id L22965.
Form and metre
Edmund Clarence Stedman is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 -A-A-B-B touch · truthA · age · youthA · heart · pureB · souls · endureB
- 2 -A-A-B-B eyes · painA · crown · stainA · heart · endB · work · friendB
- 3 -A-A-B-B life · aboveA · men · loveA · knew · dreamB · fight · gleamB
- 4 -----A-A hands · asphodel · face · farewell · care · blueA · dreams · trueA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, quick to feel the lightest touch | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of beauty or of truth, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Rich in the thoughtfulness of age, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| The hopefulness of youth, | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| The courage of the gentle heart, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The wisdom of the pure, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The strength of finely tempered souls | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To labour and endure! | 6 | ·/··˘/ |
| The blue of springtime in your eyes | 8 | ···/···· |
| Was never quenched by pain; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And winter brought your head the crown | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of snow without a stain. | 6 | ······ |
| The poet's mind, the prince's heart, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| You kept until the end, | 6 | ······ |
| Nor ever faltered in your work, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Nor ever failed a friend. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| You followed, through the quest of life, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The light that shines above | 6 | ······ |
| The tumult and the toil of men, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And shows us what to love. | 6 | ······ |
| Right loyal to the best you knew, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Reality or dream, | 6 | ˘/˘˘·· |
| You ran the race, you fought the fight, | 8 | ········ |
| A follower of the Gleam. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| We lay upon your folded hands | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The wreath of asphodel; | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| We speak above your peaceful face | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The tender word Farewell! | 6 | ·/˘··/ |
| For well you fare, in God's good care, | 8 | ········ |
| Somewhere within the blue, | 6 | /····· |
| And know, to-day, your dearest dreams | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Are true,--and true,--and true! | 6 | ······ |
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.