In Holland
The laggard winter ebbed so slowWith freezing rain and melting snow,It seemed as if the earth would stayForever where the tide was low,In sodden green and watery gray.
But now from depths beyond our sight,The tide is turning in the night,And floods of colour long concealedCome silent rising toward the light,Through garden bare and empty field.
And first, along the sheltered nooks,The crocus runs in little brooksOf joyance, till by light made boldThey show the gladness of their looksIn shining pools of white and gold.
The tiny scilla, sapphire blue,Is gently seeping in, to strewThe earth with heaven; and sudden rillsOf sunlit yellow, sweeping through,Spread into lakes of daffodils.
The hyacinths, with fragrant heads,Have overflowed their sandy beds,And fill the earth with faint perfume,The breath that Spring around her sheds.And now the tulips break in bloom!
A sea, a rainbow-tinted sea,A splendour and a mystery,Floods o'er the fields of faded gray:The roads are full of folks in glee,For lo,--to-day is Easter Day!
Words in this poem
- laggard a.
- Slow; sluggish; backward. [Lag + -ard.]
- joyance n.
- Enjoyment; gayety; festivity; joyfulness. [OF. joiance.]
- sunlit a.
- Lighted by the sun.
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Holland 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, In Holland, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/in-holland.html, id L22778.
Form and metre
In Holland is 30 lines in 6 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABAB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 AABAB slowA · snowA · stayB · lowA · grayB
- 2 AABAB sightA · nightA · concealedB · lightA · fieldB
- 3 AABAB nooksA · brooksA · boldB · looksA · goldB
- 4 AABAB blueA · strewA · rillsB · throughA · daffodilsB
- 5 AABAB headsA · bedsA · perfumeB · shedsA · bloomB
- 6 A-BAB seaA · mystery · grayB · gleeA · dayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The laggard winter ebbed so slow | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘·· |
| With freezing rain and melting snow, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| It seemed as if the earth would stay | 8 | ········ |
| Forever where the tide was low, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| In sodden green and watery gray. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But now from depths beyond our sight, | 8 | ······/· |
| The tide is turning in the night, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And floods of colour long concealed | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Come silent rising toward the light, | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| Through garden bare and empty field. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And first, along the sheltered nooks, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| The crocus runs in little brooks | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of joyance, till by light made bold | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| They show the gladness of their looks | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In shining pools of white and gold. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The tiny scilla, sapphire blue, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Is gently seeping in, to strew | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The earth with heaven; and sudden rills | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Of sunlit yellow, sweeping through, | 8 | ·/·/˘/˘· |
| Spread into lakes of daffodils. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The hyacinths, with fragrant heads, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Have overflowed their sandy beds, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| And fill the earth with faint perfume, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The breath that Spring around her sheds. | 8 | ········ |
| And now the tulips break in bloom! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A sea, a rainbow-tinted sea, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| A splendour and a mystery, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Floods o'er the fields of faded gray: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The roads are full of folks in glee, | 8 | ········ |
| For lo,--to-day is Easter Day! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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.