Labour and Romance
A Mile with MeThe Three Best ThingsRelianceDoors of DaringThe Child in the GardenLove's ReasonThe Echo in the Heart"Undine""Rencontre"Love in a LookMy April LadyA Lover's EnvyFire-Fly CityThe Gentle TravellerNepentheDay and NightHesperArrivalDepartureThe Black BirdsWithout DisguiseAn Hour"Rappelle-Toi"Love's NearnessTwo Songs of HeineEight Echoes from the Poems of Auguste AngellierRappel d'AmourThe River of Dreams
Words in this poem
- undine n.
- One of a class of fabled female water spirits who might receive a human soul by intermarrying with a mortal. [G. undine, or F. ondin, ondine, from L. unda a wave, water.]
- nepenthe n.
- A drug used by the ancients to give relief from pain and sorrow; -- by some supposed to have been opium or hasheesh. Hence, anything soothing and comforting.
- hesper n.
- The evening; Hesperus. [See Hesperian.]
- departure n.
- Division; separation; putting away. [From Depart.]
- rappel n.
- The beat of the drum to call soldiers to arms. [F. Cf. Repeal.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Labour and Romance 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, Labour and Romance, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/labour-and-romance.html, id L22737.
Form and metre
Labour and Romance is 28 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ----AA-A------------------BB me · things · reliance · daring · gardenA · reasonA · heart · undineA · rencontre · look · lady · envy · city · traveller · nepenthe · night · hesper · arrival · departure · birds · disguise · hour · toi · nearness · heine · angellier · d'amourB · dreamsB
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A Mile with Me | 4 | ···· |
| The Three Best Things | 4 | ···· |
| Reliance | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| Doors of Daring | 4 | ··/˘ |
| The Child in the Garden | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Love's Reason | 3 | ·/˘ |
| The Echo in the Heart | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| "Undine" | 2 | /· |
| "Rencontre" | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| Love in a Look | 4 | ···· |
| My April Lady | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| A Lover's Envy | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Fire-Fly City | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| The Gentle Traveller | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| Nepenthe | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| Day and Night | 3 | ··· |
| Hesper | 2 | /˘ |
| Arrival | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| Departure | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| The Black Birds | 3 | ··· |
| Without Disguise | 4 | ··˘/ |
| An Hour | 3 | ·/˘ |
| "Rappelle-Toi" | 4 | ···· |
| Love's Nearness | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Two Songs of Heine | 4 | ···· |
| Eight Echoes from the Poems of Auguste Angellier | 13 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘··· |
| Rappel d'Amour | 4 | /˘˘/ |
| The River of Dreams | 5 | ·/˘·· |
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.