Love's Nearness
I think of thee when golden sunbeams glimmerAcross the sea;And when the waves reflect the moon's pale shimmerI think of thee.
I see thy form when down the distant highwayThe dust-clouds rise;In darkest night, above the mountain by-wayI see thine eyes.
I hear thee when the ocean-tides returningAloud rejoice;And on the lonely moor in silence yearningI hear thy voice.
I dwell with thee; though thou art far removed,Yet thou art near.The sun goes down, the stars shine out,--BelovedIf thou wert here!
Words in this poem
- shimmer v. i.
- To shine with a tremulous or intermittent light; to shine faintly; to gleam; to glisten; to glimmer. [OE. schimeren, AS. scimerian; akin to scimian, sciman, to glitter, D. schemeren, G. schimmern, Dan. skimre, Sw. skimra, AS. scima a light, brightness, Icel. ski]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's Nearness 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, Love's Nearness, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/love-s-nearness.html, id L22823.
Form and metre
Love's Nearness is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 ABAB glimmerA · seaB · shimmerA · theeB
- 2 ABAB highwayA · riseB · wayA · eyesB
- 3 ABAB returningA · rejoiceB · yearningA · voiceB
- 4 -A-A removed · nearA · beloved · hereA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I think of thee when golden sunbeams glimmer | 11 | ·····/˘/·/˘ |
| Across the sea; | 4 | ˘/·· |
| And when the waves reflect the moon's pale shimmer | 11 | ····˘/···/˘ |
| I think of thee. | 4 | ···· |
| I see thy form when down the distant highway | 11 | ·······/˘/· |
| The dust-clouds rise; | 4 | ···· |
| In darkest night, above the mountain by-way | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| I see thine eyes. | 4 | ···· |
| I hear thee when the ocean-tides returning | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| Aloud rejoice; | 4 | ˘/˘/ |
| And on the lonely moor in silence yearning | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| I hear thy voice. | 4 | ···· |
| I dwell with thee; though thou art far removed, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Yet thou art near. | 4 | ···· |
| The sun goes down, the stars shine out,--Beloved | 10 | ········˘/ |
| If thou wert here! | 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.