The Old Bridge
On the old, old bridge, with its crumbling stonesAll covered with lichens red and gray,Two lovers were talking in sweet low tones:And we were they!
As he leaned to breathe in her willing earThe love that he vowed would never die,He called her his darling, his dove most dear:And he was I!
She covered her face from the pale moonlightWith her trembling hands, but her eyes looked through,And listened and listened with long delight:And she was you!
On the old, old bridge, where the lichens rust,Two lovers are learning the same old lore;He tells his love, and she looks her trust:But we,--no more!
About this text
The Old Bridge 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 Old Bridge, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/the-old-bridge.html, id L22830.
Form and metre
The Old Bridge is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%).
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 ABAB stonesA · grayB · tonesA · theyB
- 2 ABAB earA · dieB · dearA · iB
- 3 ABAB moonlightA · throughB · delightA · youB
- 4 ABAB rustA · loreB · trustA · moreB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| On the old, old bridge, with its crumbling stones | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| All covered with lichens red and gray, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| Two lovers were talking in sweet low tones: | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| And we were they! | 4 | ···· |
| As he leaned to breathe in her willing ear | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The love that he vowed would never die, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| He called her his darling, his dove most dear: | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And he was I! | 4 | ···· |
| She covered her face from the pale moonlight | 10 | ·/˘·····/· |
| With her trembling hands, but her eyes looked through, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And listened and listened with long delight: | 10 | ·/˘·/˘··˘/ |
| And she was you! | 4 | ···· |
| On the old, old bridge, where the lichens rust, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Two lovers are learning the same old lore; | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| He tells his love, and she looks her trust: | 9 | ········· |
| But we,--no more! | 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.