Patria
I would not even ask my heart to sayIf I could love another land as wellAs thee, my country, had I felt the spellOf Italy at birth, or learned to obeyThe charm of France, or England's mighty sway.I would not be so much an infidelAs once to dream, or fashion words to tell,What land could hold my heart from thee away.
For like a law of nature in my blood,America, I feel thy sovereignty,And woven through my soul thy vital sign.My life is but a wave and thou the flood;I am a leaf and thou the mother-tree;Nor should I be at all, were I not thine.
Words in this poem
- infidel a.
- Not holding the faith; -- applied esp. to one who does not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the supernatural origin of Christianity. [L. infidelis; pref. in- not + fidelis faithful, fr. fides faith: cf. F. infidèle. See Fidelity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Patria 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, Patria, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/patria.html, id L22901.
Form and metre
Patria 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 sayA · wellB · spellB · obeyA · swayA · infidelB · tellB · awayA
- 2 A-BA-B bloodA · sovereignty · signB · floodA · tree · thineB
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 would not even ask my heart to say | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| If I could love another land as well | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| As thee, my country, had I felt the spell | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of Italy at birth, or learned to obey | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| The charm of France, or England's mighty sway. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| I would not be so much an infidel | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As once to dream, or fashion words to tell, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| What land could hold my heart from thee away. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For like a law of nature in my blood, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| America, I feel thy sovereignty, | 10 | ˘/˘˘···/˘˘ |
| And woven through my soul thy vital sign. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| My life is but a wave and thou the flood; | 10 | ·········· |
| I am a leaf and thou the mother-tree; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Nor should I be at all, were I not thine. | 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.