Portrait and Reality
If on the closed curtain of my sightMy fancy paints thy portrait far away,I see thee still the same, by night or day;Crossing the crowded street, or moving bright'Mid festal throngs, or reading by the lightOf shaded lamp some friendly poet's lay,Or shepherding the children at their play,--The same sweet self, and my unchanged delight.
But when I see thee near, I recognizeIn every dear familiar way some strangePerfection, and behold in April guiseThe magic of thy beauty that doth rangeThrough many moods with infinite surprise,--Never the same, and sweeter with each change.
Words in this poem
- festal a.
- Of or pertaining to a holiday or a feast; joyous; festive. [L. festum holiday, feast. See feast.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Portrait and Reality 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, Portrait and Reality, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/portrait-and-reality.html, id L22855.
Form and metre
Portrait and Reality is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 sightA · awayB · dayB · brightA · lightA · layB · playB · delightA
- 2 ABABAB recognizeA · strangeB · guiseA · rangeB · surpriseA · changeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If on the closed curtain of my sight | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| My fancy paints thy portrait far away, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| I see thee still the same, by night or day; | 10 | ·········· |
| Crossing the crowded street, or moving bright | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| 'Mid festal throngs, or reading by the light | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Of shaded lamp some friendly poet's lay, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Or shepherding the children at their play,-- | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| The same sweet self, and my unchanged delight. | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| But when I see thee near, I recognize | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In every dear familiar way some strange | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Perfection, and behold in April guise | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| The magic of thy beauty that doth range | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Through many moods with infinite surprise,-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| Never the same, and sweeter with each change. | 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.