Sea-Gulls of Manhattan
Children of the elemental mother,Born upon some lonely island shoreWhere the wrinkled ripples run and whisper,Where the crested billows plunge and roar;Long-winged, tireless roamers and adventurers,Fearless breasters of the wind and sea,In the far-off solitary placesI have seen you floating wild and free!
Here the high-built cities rise around you;Here the cliffs that tower east and west,Honeycombed with human habitations,Have no hiding for the sea-bird's nest:Here the river flows begrimed and troubled;Here the hurrying, panting vessels fume,Restless, up and down the watery highway,While a thousand chimneys vomit gloom.
Toil and tumult, conflict and confusion,Clank and clamour of the vast machineHuman hands have built for human bondage--Yet amid it all you float serene;Circling, soaring, sailing, swooping lightlyDown to glean your harvest from the wave;In your heritage of air and water,You have kept the freedom Nature gave.
Even so the wild-woods of ManhattanSaw your wheeling flocks of white and gray;Even so you fluttered, followed, floated,Round the Half-Moon creeping up the bay;Even so your voices creaked and chattered.Laughing shrilly o'er the tidal rips,While your black and beady eyes were glisteningRound the sullen British prison-ships.
Children of the elemental mother,Fearless floaters 'mid the double blue,From the crowded boats that cross the ferriesMany a longing heart goes out to you.Though the cities climb and close around us,Something tells us that our souls are free,While the sea-gulls fly above the harbour,While the river flows to meet the sea!
Words in this poem
- honeycombed a.
- Formed or perforated like a honeycomb.
- fume n.
- Exhalation; volatile matter (esp. noxious vapor or smoke) ascending in a dense body; smoke; vapor; reek; as, the fumes of tobacco. [L. fumus; akin to Skr. dh smoke, dh to shake, fan a flame, cf. Gr. fum smoke, F. fumée. Cf. Dust, n., Femerell, Thyme.]
- clank n.
- A sharp, brief, ringing sound, made by a collision of metallic or other sonorous bodies; -- usually expressing a duller or less resounding sound than clang, and a deeper and stronger sound than clink. [Akin to clink, and of imitative origin; cf. G. klang sound, D. klank. Cf. Clang.]
- clamour n.
- A great outcry or vociferation; loud and continued shouting or exclamation. [OF. clamour, clamur, F. clameur, fr. L. clamor, fr. clamare to cry out. See Claim.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- glean n.
- Cleaning; afterbirth. Holland.
- heritage a.
- That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
- shrilly a.
- Somewhat shrill.
- tidal a.
- Of or pertaining to tides; caused by tides; having tides; periodically rising and falling, or following and ebbing; as, tidal waters.
- beady a.
- Resembling beads; small, round, and glistening.
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- harbour n.
- A station for rest and entertainment; a place of security and comfort; a refuge; a shelter. [OE herbor, herberwe, herberge, Icel. herbergi (cf. OHG. heriberga), orig., a shelter for soldiers; herr army + bjarga to save, help, defend; akin to AS. here ar]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sea-Gulls of Manhattan 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, Sea-Gulls of Manhattan, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/sea-gulls-of-manhattan.html, id L22905.
Form and metre
Sea-Gulls of Manhattan is 40 lines in 5 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 -A-A-B-B mother · shoreA · whisper · roarA · adventurers · seaB · places · freeB
- 2 -A-A-B-B you · westA · habitations · nestA · troubled · fumeB · highway · gloomB
- 3 AA-A-B-B confusionA · machineA · bondage · sereneA · lightly · waveB · water · gaveB
- 4 -A-A-B-B manhattan · grayA · floated · bayA · chattered · ripsB · glistening · shipsB
- 5 -A-A-B-B mother · blueA · ferries · youA · us · freeB · harbour · seaB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Children of the elemental mother, | 10 | /˘···˘/˘/˘ |
| Born upon some lonely island shore | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| Where the wrinkled ripples run and whisper, | 10 | ··/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Where the crested billows plunge and roar; | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Long-winged, tireless roamers and adventurers, | 11 | ··/˘···˘/˘˘ |
| Fearless breasters of the wind and sea, | 9 | /˘······· |
| In the far-off solitary places | 10 | ····/˘·˘/˘ |
| I have seen you floating wild and free! | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Here the high-built cities rise around you; | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Here the cliffs that tower east and west, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Honeycombed with human habitations, | 10 | /˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Have no hiding for the sea-bird's nest: | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Here the river flows begrimed and troubled; | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| Here the hurrying, panting vessels fume, | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘/˘· |
| Restless, up and down the watery highway, | 10 | /˘····/˘/· |
| While a thousand chimneys vomit gloom. | 9 | ··/˘/˘/˘· |
| Toil and tumult, conflict and confusion, | 10 | ··/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Clank and clamour of the vast machine | 9 | ··/˘···˘/ |
| Human hands have built for human bondage-- | 10 | /˘····/˘/˘ |
| Yet amid it all you float serene; | 9 | ·˘/····˘/ |
| Circling, soaring, sailing, swooping lightly | 11 | /˘˘/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Down to glean your harvest from the wave; | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| In your heritage of air and water, | 10 | ··/˘˘···/˘ |
| You have kept the freedom Nature gave. | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| Even so the wild-woods of Manhattan | 10 | /˘·····˘/˘ |
| Saw your wheeling flocks of white and gray; | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Even so you fluttered, followed, floated, | 10 | /˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Round the Half-Moon creeping up the bay; | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Even so your voices creaked and chattered. | 10 | /˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Laughing shrilly o'er the tidal rips, | 9 | /˘/˘··/˘· |
| While your black and beady eyes were glistening | 11 | ····/˘··/˘˘ |
| Round the sullen British prison-ships. | 9 | ··/˘/˘/˘· |
| Children of the elemental mother, | 10 | /˘···˘/˘/˘ |
| Fearless floaters 'mid the double blue, | 9 | /˘/˘··/˘· |
| From the crowded boats that cross the ferries | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| Many a longing heart goes out to you. | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Though the cities climb and close around us, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Something tells us that our souls are free, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| While the sea-gulls fly above the harbour, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| While the river flows to meet the sea! | 9 | ··/˘····· |
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.