Remarks About Kings
God said, "I am tired of kings,"--But that was a long while ago!And meantime man said, "No,--I like their looks in their robes and rings."So he crowned a few more,And they went on playing the game as before,Fighting and spoiling things.
Man said, "I am tired of kings!Sons of the robber-chiefs of yore,They make me pay for their lust and their war;I am the puppet, they pull the strings;The blood of my heart is the wine they drink.I will govern myself for awhile I think,And see what that brings!"
Then God, who made the first remark,Smiled in the dark.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Remarks About Kings 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, Remarks About Kings, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/remarks-about-kings.html, id L22929.
Form and metre
Remarks About Kings is 16 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBACCA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBACCA kingsA · agoB · noB · ringsA · moreC · beforeC · thingsA
- 2 ABBACCA kingsA · yoreB · warB · stringsA · drinkC · thinkC · bringsA
- 3 AA remarkA · darkA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| God said, "I am tired of kings,"-- | 9 | ····/˘˘·· |
| But that was a long while ago! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And meantime man said, "No,-- | 6 | ·/···· |
| I like their looks in their robes and rings." | 9 | ········· |
| So he crowned a few more, | 6 | ······ |
| And they went on playing the game as before, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Fighting and spoiling things. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Man said, "I am tired of kings! | 9 | ····/˘˘·· |
| Sons of the robber-chiefs of yore, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| They make me pay for their lust and their war; | 10 | ·········· |
| I am the puppet, they pull the strings; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The blood of my heart is the wine they drink. | 10 | ·········· |
| I will govern myself for awhile I think, | 11 | ··/˘·/·˘/·· |
| And see what that brings!" | 5 | ····· |
| Then God, who made the first remark, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Smiled in the dark. | 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.