The Ivory Cradle
The cradle I have made for theeIs carved of orient ivory,And curtained round with wavy silkMore white than hawthorn-bloom or milk.
A twig of box, a lilac spray,Will drive the goblin-horde away;And charm thy childlike heart to keepHer happy dream and virgin sleep.
Within that pure and fragrant nest,I'll rock thy gentle soul to rest,With tender songs we need not fearTo have a passing angel hear.
Ah, long and long I fain would holdThe snowy curtain's guardian foldAround thy crystal visions, bornIn clearness of the early morn.
But look, the sun is glowing redWith triumph in his golden bed;Aurora's virgin whiteness diesIn crimson glory of the skies.
The rapid flame will burn its wayThrough these white curtains, too, one day;The ivory cradle will be leftUndone, and broken, and bereft.
Words in this poem
- horde n.
- A wandering troop or gang; especially, a clan or tribe of a nomadic people migrating from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, etc.; a predatory multitude. Thomson. [F. horde (cf. G. horde), fr. Turk. ord, ordi, camp; of Tartar origin.]
- childlike a.
- Resembling a child, or that which belongs to children; becoming a child; meek; submissive; dutiful.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Ivory Cradle 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 Ivory Cradle, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/the-ivory-cradle.html, id L22826.
Form and metre
The Ivory Cradle is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 --AA thee · ivory · silkA · milkA
- 2 AABB sprayA · awayA · keepB · sleepB
- 3 AABB nestA · restA · fearB · hearB
- 4 AABB holdA · foldA · bornB · mornB
- 5 AABB redA · bedA · diesB · skiesB
- 6 AABB wayA · dayA · leftB · bereftB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The cradle I have made for thee | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Is carved of orient ivory, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘˘ |
| And curtained round with wavy silk | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| More white than hawthorn-bloom or milk. | 8 | ···/···· |
| A twig of box, a lilac spray, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Will drive the goblin-horde away; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And charm thy childlike heart to keep | 8 | ···/···· |
| Her happy dream and virgin sleep. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Within that pure and fragrant nest, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I'll rock thy gentle soul to rest, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With tender songs we need not fear | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To have a passing angel hear. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Ah, long and long I fain would hold | 8 | ········ |
| The snowy curtain's guardian fold | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Around thy crystal visions, born | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| In clearness of the early morn. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But look, the sun is glowing red | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With triumph in his golden bed; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Aurora's virgin whiteness dies | 8 | ˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| In crimson glory of the skies. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The rapid flame will burn its way | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Through these white curtains, too, one day; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The ivory cradle will be left | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Undone, and broken, and bereft. | 8 | ˘/·/˘·˘/ |
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.