Homeward Bound
Home, for my heart still calls me;Home, through the danger zone;Home, whatever befalls me,I will sail again to my own!
Wolves of the sea are hidingClosely along the way,Under the water bidingTheir moment to rend and slay.
Black is the eagle that brands them,Black are their hearts as the nightsBlack is the hate that sends themTo murder but not to fight.
Flower of the German Culture,Boast of the Kaiser's Marine,Choose for your emblem the vulture,Cowardly, cruel, obscene!
Forth from her sheltered havenOur peaceful ship glides slow,Noiseless in flight as a raven,Gray as a hoodie crow.
She doubles and turns in her bearing,Like a twisting plover she goes;The way of her westward faringOnly the captain knows.
In a lonely bay concealingShe lingers for days, and slipsAt dusk from her covert, stealingThro' channels feared by the ships.
Brave are the men, and steady,Who guide her over the deep,--British mariners, readyTo face the sea-wolf's leap.
Lord of the winds and waters,Bring our ship to her mark,Safe from this game of hide-and-seekWith murderers in the dark!
Words in this poem
- biding n.
- Residence; habitation. Rowe.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Homeward Bound 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, Homeward Bound, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/homeward-bound.html, id L22941.
Form and metre
Homeward Bound is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 9 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB meA · zoneB · meA · ownB
- 2 ABAB hidingA · wayB · bidingA · slayB
- 3 A-A- themA · nights · themA · fight
- 4 ABAB cultureA · marineB · vultureA · obsceneB
- 5 ABAB havenA · slowB · ravenA · crowB
- 6 -A-A bearing · goesA · faring · knowsA
- 7 ABAB concealingA · slipsB · stealingA · shipsB
- 8 ABAB steadyA · deepB · readyA · leapB
- 9 -A-A waters · markA · seek · darkA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Home, for my heart still calls me; | 7 | ······· |
| Home, through the danger zone; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Home, whatever befalls me, | 7 | ··/˘˘/· |
| I will sail again to my own! | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| Wolves of the sea are hiding | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Closely along the way, | 6 | /˘˘/·· |
| Under the water biding | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Their moment to rend and slay. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Black is the eagle that brands them, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Black are their hearts as the nights | 7 | ······· |
| Black is the hate that sends them | 7 | ······· |
| To murder but not to fight. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Flower of the German Culture, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Boast of the Kaiser's Marine, | 7 | ···/˘˘/ |
| Choose for your emblem the vulture, | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Cowardly, cruel, obscene! | 7 | /˘˘/˘˘/ |
| Forth from her sheltered haven | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Our peaceful ship glides slow, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Noiseless in flight as a raven, | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Gray as a hoodie crow. | 6 | ······ |
| She doubles and turns in her bearing, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Like a twisting plover she goes; | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| The way of her westward faring | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Only the captain knows. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| In a lonely bay concealing | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| She lingers for days, and slips | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| At dusk from her covert, stealing | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Thro' channels feared by the ships. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Brave are the men, and steady, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Who guide her over the deep,-- | 7 | ······· |
| British mariners, ready | 7 | /˘/˘˘/˘ |
| To face the sea-wolf's leap. | 6 | ······ |
| Lord of the winds and waters, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Bring our ship to her mark, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Safe from this game of hide-and-seek | 8 | ········ |
| With murderers in the dark! | 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.