Fire-Fly City
Like a long arrow through the dark the train is darting,Bearing me far away, after a perfect day of love's delight:Wakeful with all the sad-sweet memories of parting,I lift the narrow window-shade and look out on the night.
Lonely the land unknown, and like a river flowing,Forest and field and hill are gliding backward still athwart my dream;Till in that country strange, and ever stranger growing,A magic city full of lights begins to glow and gleam.
Wide through the landscape dim the lamps are lit in millions;Long avenues unfold clear-shining lines of gold across the green;Clusters and rings of light, and luminous pavilions,--Oh, who will tell the city's name, and what these wonders mean?
Why do they beckon me, and what have they to show me?Crowds in the blazing street, mirth where the feasters meet, kisses andwine:Many to laugh with me, but never one to know me:A cityful of stranger-hearts and none to beat with mine!
Look how the glittering lines are wavering and lifting,--Softly the breeze of night scatters the vision bright: and, passingfair,Over the meadow-grass and through the forest drifting,The Fire-Fly City of the Dark is lost in empty air!
Words in this poem
- wakeful a.
- Not sleeping; indisposed to sleep; watchful; vigilant.
- beckon v. t.
- To make a significant sign to; hence, to summon, as by a motion of the hand.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fire-Fly City 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, Fire-Fly City, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/fire-fly-city.html, id L22813.
Form and metre
Fire-Fly City is 22 lines in 5 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 ABAB dartingA · delightB · partingA · nightB
- 2 ABAB flowingA · dreamB · growingA · gleamB
- 3 ABAB millionsA · greenB · pavilionsA · meanB
- 4 A-BAB meA · and · wineB · meA · mineB
- 5 A-BAB liftingA · passing · fairB · driftingA · airB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Like a long arrow through the dark the train is darting, | 13 | ···/˘······/˘ |
| Bearing me far away, after a perfect day of love's delight: | 16 | /˘··˘/···/····˘/ |
| Wakeful with all the sad-sweet memories of parting, | 13 | /˘·····/˘˘·/˘ |
| I lift the narrow window-shade and look out on the night. | 14 | ···/˘/˘······· |
| Lonely the land unknown, and like a river flowing, | 13 | /˘··˘/···/˘/˘ |
| Forest and field and hill are gliding backward still athwart my dream; | 16 | /˘·····/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Till in that country strange, and ever stranger growing, | 13 | ···/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| A magic city full of lights begins to glow and gleam. | 14 | ·/˘/˘···˘/···· |
| Wide through the landscape dim the lamps are lit in millions; | 13 | ···/·······/˘ |
| Long avenues unfold clear-shining lines of gold across the green; | 16 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘···˘/·· |
| Clusters and rings of light, and luminous pavilions,-- | 13 | /˘·····/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Oh, who will tell the city's name, and what these wonders mean? | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘· |
| Why do they beckon me, and what have they to show me? | 13 | ···/˘········ |
| Crowds in the blazing street, mirth where the feasters meet, kisses and | 15 | ···/˘····/˘·/˘· |
| wine: | 1 | · |
| Many to laugh with me, but never one to know me: | 13 | /˘·····/˘···· |
| A cityful of stranger-hearts and none to beat with mine! | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| Look how the glittering lines are wavering and lifting,-- | 14 | ···/˘˘··/˘˘·/˘ |
| Softly the breeze of night scatters the vision bright: and, passing | 15 | /˘····/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| fair, | 1 | · |
| Over the meadow-grass and through the forest drifting, | 13 | ···/·····/˘/˘ |
| The Fire-Fly City of the Dark is lost in empty air! | 14 | ·/·/˘······/˘· |
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.