Memorial Sonnet, 1908
This is the house where little Aldrich readThe early pages of Life's wonder-bookWith boyish pleasure: in this ingle-nookHe watched the drift-wood fire of Fancy shedBright colour on the pictures blue and red:Boy-like he skipped the longer words, and tookHis happy way, with searching, dreamful lookAmong the deeper things more simply said.
Then, came his turn to write: and still the flameOf Fancy played through all the tales he told,And still he won the laurelled poet's fameWith simple words wrought into rhymes of gold.Look, here's the face to which this house is frame,--A man too wise to let his heart grow old!
Words in this poem
- boyish a.
- Resembling a boy in a manners or opinions; belonging to a boy; childish; trifling; puerile.
- nook n.
- A narrow place formed by an angle in bodies or between bodies; a corner; a recess; a secluded retreat. [OE. nok; cf. Gael. & Ir. niuc.]
- dreamful a.
- Full of dreams.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Memorial Sonnet, 1908 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, Memorial Sonnet, 1908, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/memorial-sonnet-1908.html, id L22964.
Form and metre
Memorial Sonnet, 1908 is 14 lines in 2 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 ABBAABBA readA · bookB · nookB · shedA · redA · tookB · lookB · saidA
- 2 ABABAB flameA · toldB · fameA · goldB · frameA · oldB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This is the house where little Aldrich read | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The early pages of Life's wonder-book | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| With boyish pleasure: in this ingle-nook | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| He watched the drift-wood fire of Fancy shed | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| Bright colour on the pictures blue and red: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Boy-like he skipped the longer words, and took | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| His happy way, with searching, dreamful look | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Among the deeper things more simply said. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Then, came his turn to write: and still the flame | 10 | ·········· |
| Of Fancy played through all the tales he told, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And still he won the laurelled poet's fame | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| With simple words wrought into rhymes of gold. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Look, here's the face to which this house is frame,-- | 10 | ·········· |
| A man too wise to let his heart grow old! | 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.