Pro Patria

Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933) · 1925

trochaic trimeter · 20 lines · from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke

PatriaAmericaThe Ancestral DwellingsHudson's Last VoyageSea-Gulls of ManhattanA Ballad of Claremont HillUrbs CoronataMercy for ArmeniaSicily, December,"Come Back Again, Jeanne d'Arc"National MonumentsThe Monument of Francis MakemieThe Statue of Sherman by St. Gaudens"America for Me"The BuildersSpirit of the Everlasting BoyTexasWho Follow the FlagStain not the SkyPeace-Hymn of the Republic

Words in this poem

jeanne n.
A twilled cotton cloth. Satin jean, a kind of jean woven smooth and glossy, after the manner of satin. [Prob. named from Genoa. See Jane.]
republic n.
Common weal. B. Jonson. [F. république, L. respublica commonwealth; res a thing, an affair + publicus, publica, public. See Real, a., and Public.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Pro 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, Pro Patria, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/pro-patria.html, id L22740.

Form and metre

Pro Patria is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).

See other poems in trochaic trimeter.

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.

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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.

LineSyl.Stress
Patria2··
America4˘/˘˘
The Ancestral Dwellings6·˘/˘/˘
Hudson's Last Voyage5/˘·/˘
Sea-Gulls of Manhattan6···˘/˘
A Ballad of Claremont Hill7·/˘·/··
Urbs Coronata5·····
Mercy for Armenia7/˘·˘/˘˘
Sicily, December,6/˘˘˘/˘
"Come Back Again, Jeanne d'Arc"6··˘/··
National Monuments6/˘˘/˘˘
The Monument of Francis Makemie10·/˘˘·/˘···
The Statue of Sherman by St. Gaudens10·/··/˘····
"America for Me"6˘/˘˘··
The Builders3·/˘
Spirit of the Everlasting Boy9/˘···˘/˘·
Texas2/˘
Who Follow the Flag5·/˘··
Stain not the Sky4····
Peace-Hymn of the Republic7····˘/˘

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.

More by Henry Van Dyke