Life
Let me but live my life from year to year,With forward face and unreluctant soul;Not hurrying to, nor turning from, the goal;Not mourning for the things that disappearIn the dim past, nor holding back in fearFrom what the future veils; but with a wholeAnd happy heart, that pays its tollTo Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer.
So let the way wind up the hill or down,O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy:Still seeking what I sought when but a boy,New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,My heart will keep the courage of the quest,And hope the road's last turn will be the best.
About this text
Life 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, Life, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/life.html, id L22802.
Form and metre
Life is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBA yearA · soulB · goalB · disappearA · fearA · wholeB · tollB · cheerA
- 2 ABBACC downA · joyB · boyB · crownA · questC · bestC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Let me but live my life from year to year, | 10 | ·········· |
| With forward face and unreluctant soul; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Not hurrying to, nor turning from, the goal; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Not mourning for the things that disappear | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| In the dim past, nor holding back in fear | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| From what the future veils; but with a whole | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And happy heart, that pays its toll | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| So let the way wind up the hill or down, | 10 | ·········· |
| O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Still seeking what I sought when but a boy, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| New friendship, high adventure, and a crown, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| My heart will keep the courage of the quest, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And hope the road's last turn will be the best. | 10 | ·········· |
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.