School
I put my heart to schoolIn the world where men grow wise:"Go out," I said, "and learn the rule;Come back when you win a prize."
My heart came back again:"Now where is the prize?" I cried.--"The rule was false, and the prize was pain,And the teacher's name was Pride."
I put my heart to schoolIn the woods where veeries singAnd brooks run clear and cool,In the fields where wild flowers spring.
"And why do you stay so longMy heart, and where do you roam?"The answer came with a laugh and a song,--"I find this school is home."
About this text
School 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, School, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/school.html, id L22767.
Form and metre
School is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABAB schoolA · wiseB · ruleA · prizeB
- 2 ABAB againA · criedB · painA · prideB
- 3 ABAB schoolA · singB · coolA · springB
- 4 ABAB longA · roamB · songA · homeB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I put my heart to school | 6 | ······ |
| In the world where men grow wise: | 7 | ······· |
| "Go out," I said, "and learn the rule; | 8 | ········ |
| Come back when you win a prize." | 7 | ······· |
| My heart came back again: | 6 | ····˘/ |
| "Now where is the prize?" I cried.-- | 7 | ······· |
| "The rule was false, and the prize was pain, | 9 | ········· |
| And the teacher's name was Pride." | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I put my heart to school | 6 | ······ |
| In the woods where veeries sing | 6 | ······ |
| And brooks run clear and cool, | 6 | ······ |
| In the fields where wild flowers spring. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| "And why do you stay so long | 7 | ······· |
| My heart, and where do you roam?" | 7 | ······· |
| The answer came with a laugh and a song,-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| "I find this school is home." | 6 | ······ |
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.