For the Unnamed Soldiers Who Died in France
Here the great heart of France,Victor in noble strife,Doth consecrate a Poilu's tombTo those who saved her life!
Brave son without a name,Your country calls you home,To rest among her heirs of fame,Beneath the Pantheon's dome!
Now from the height of Heaven,The souls of heroes look;Their names, ungraven on this stone,Are written in God's book.
Women of France, who mournYour dead in unmarked ground,Come hither! Here the man you lovedIn the heart of France is found!
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For the Unnamed Soldiers Who Died in France 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, For the Unnamed Soldiers Who Died in France, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/for-the-unnamed-soldiers-who-died-in-france.html, id L22953.
Form and metre
For the Unnamed Soldiers Who Died in France is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in short measure.
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 france · strifeA · tomb · lifeA
- 2 ABAB nameA · homeB · fameA · domeB
- 3 ABAB heavenA · lookB · stoneA · bookB
- 4 -A-A mourn · groundA · loved · foundA
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Here the great heart of France, | 6 | ······ |
| Victor in noble strife, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Doth consecrate a Poilu's tomb | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To those who saved her life! | 6 | ······ |
| Brave son without a name, | 6 | ······ |
| Your country calls you home, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To rest among her heirs of fame, | 8 | ········ |
| Beneath the Pantheon's dome! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Now from the height of Heaven, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The souls of heroes look; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Their names, ungraven on this stone, | 8 | ········ |
| Are written in God's book. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Women of France, who mourn | 6 | /˘···· |
| Your dead in unmarked ground, | 6 | ···˘/· |
| Come hither! Here the man you loved | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In the heart of France is found! | 7 | ······· |
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.