The Hermit Thrush
O wonderful! How liquid clearThe molten gold of that ethereal tone,Floating and falling through the wood alone,A hermit-hymn poured out for God to hear!
O holy, holy, holy! Hyaline,Long light, low light, glory of eventide!Love far away, far up,--up,--love divine!Little love, too, for ever, ever near,Warm love, earth love, tender love of mine,In the leafy dark where you hide,You are mine,--mine,--mine!
Ah, my beloved, do you feel with meThe hidden virtue of that melody,The rapture and the purity of love,The heavenly joy that can not find the word?Then, while we wait again to hear the bird,Come very near to me, and do not move,--Now, hermit of the woodland, fill anewThe cool, green cup of air with harmony,And we will drink the wine of love with you.
Words in this poem
- hyaline a.
- Glassy; resembling glass; consisting of glass; transparent, like crystal. [L. hyalinus, Gr. hyalin.]
- eventide n.
- The time of evening; evening. [AS. æfentid. See Tide.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Hermit Thrush 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, The Hermit Thrush, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/the-hermit-thrush.html, id L22773.
Form and metre
The Hermit Thrush is 20 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 ABBA clearA · toneB · aloneB · hearA
- 2 -AB-BAB hyaline · eventideA · divineB · near · mineB · hideA · mineB
- 3 --ABBAC-C me · melody · loveA · wordB · birdB · moveA · anewC · harmony · youC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O wonderful! How liquid clear | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| The molten gold of that ethereal tone, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Floating and falling through the wood alone, | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| A hermit-hymn poured out for God to hear! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| O holy, holy, holy! Hyaline, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Long light, low light, glory of eventide! | 10 | ····/˘·/˘˘ |
| Love far away, far up,--up,--love divine! | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Little love, too, for ever, ever near, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| Warm love, earth love, tender love of mine, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| In the leafy dark where you hide, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| You are mine,--mine,--mine! | 5 | ····· |
| Ah, my beloved, do you feel with me | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| The hidden virtue of that melody, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| The rapture and the purity of love, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| The heavenly joy that can not find the word? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Then, while we wait again to hear the bird, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Come very near to me, and do not move,-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Now, hermit of the woodland, fill anew | 10 | ·/˘··/··˘/ |
| The cool, green cup of air with harmony, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And we will drink the wine of love with you. | 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.