Hearth and Altar
A Home Song"Little Boatie"A Mother's BirthdayTransformationRendezvousGratitudePeaceSanta ChristinaThe BargainTo the Child JesusBitter-SweetHymn of JoySong of a Pilgrim-SoulOde to PeaceThree Prayers for Sleep and WakingPortrait and RealityThe Wind of SorrowHide and SeekAutumn in the GardenThe MessageDulcis MemoriaThe WindowChristmas TearsDorothea, 1888-1912
Words in this poem
- rendezvous n.
- A place appointed for a meeting, or at which persons customarily meet.
- memoria n.
- Memory. Memoria technica, technical memory; a contrivance for aiding the memory. [L.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hearth and Altar 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, Hearth and Altar, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/hearth-and-altar.html, id L22738.
Form and metre
Hearth and Altar is 24 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in trochaic dimeter.
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---A---------- song · boatie · birthday · transformation · rendezvous · gratitude · peaceA · christina · bargain · jesusA · sweet · joy · soul · peaceA · waking · reality · sorrow · seek · garden · message · memoria · window · 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 trochaic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A Home Song | 3 | ··· |
| "Little Boatie" | 4 | /˘·· |
| A Mother's Birthday | 5 | ·/˘/· |
| Transformation | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| Rendezvous | 3 | /˘· |
| Gratitude | 3 | /˘· |
| Peace | 1 | · |
| Santa Christina | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| The Bargain | 3 | ·/˘ |
| To the Child Jesus | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Bitter-Sweet | 3 | /˘· |
| Hymn of Joy | 3 | ··· |
| Song of a Pilgrim-Soul | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ode to Peace | 3 | ··· |
| Three Prayers for Sleep and Waking | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Portrait and Reality | 7 | /˘·˘/˘˘ |
| The Wind of Sorrow | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Hide and Seek | 3 | ··· |
| Autumn in the Garden | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| The Message | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Dulcis Memoria | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| The Window | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Christmas Tears | 3 | /˘· |
| Dorothea, 1888-1912 | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
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.