The Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Where's your kingdom, little king?Where the land you call your own,Where your palace and your throne?Fluttering lightly on the wingThrough the blossom-world of May,Whither lies your royal way,Little king?
Far to northward lies a landWhere the trees together standClosely as the blades of wheatWhen the summer is complete.Rolling like an ocean wideOver vale and mountainside,Balsam, hemlock, spruce and pine,--All those mighty trees are mine.There's a river flowing free,--All its waves belong to me.There's a lake so clear and brightStars shine out of it all night;Rowan-berries round it spreadLike a belt of coral red.Never royal garden plannedFair as my Canadian land!There I build my summer nest,There I reign and there I rest,While from dawn to dark I sing,Happy kingdom! Lucky king!
Back again, my little king!Is your happy kingdom lostTo the rebel knave, Jack Frost?Have you felt the snow-flakes sting?Houseless, homeless in October,Whither now? Your plight is sober,Exiled king!
Far to southward lie the regionsWhere my loyal flower-legionsHold possession of the year,Filling every month with cheer.Christmas wakes the winter rose;New Year daffodils unclose;Yellow jasmine through the woodFlows in February flood,Dropping from the tallest treesGolden streams that never freeze.Thither now I take my flightDown the pathway of the night,Till I see the southern moonGlisten on the broad lagoon,Where the cypress' dusky green,And the dark magnolia's sheen,Weave a shelter round my home.There the snow-storms never come;There the bannered mosses grayLike a curtain gently sway,Hanging low on every sideRound the covert where I bide,Till the March azalea glows,Royal red and heavenly rose,Through the Carolina gladeWhere my winter home is made.There I hold my southern court,Full of merriment and sport:There I take my ease and sing,Happy kingdom! Lucky king!
Little boaster, vagrant king,Neither north nor south is yours,You've no kingdom that endures!Wandering every fall and spring,With your ruby crown so slender,Are you only a Pretender,Landless king?
Never king by right divineRuled a richer realm than mine!What are lands and golden crowns,Armies, fortresses and towns,Jewels, sceptres, robes and rings,--What are these to song and wings?Everywhere that I can fly,There I own the earth and sky;Everywhere that I can sing.There I'm happy as a king.
Words in this poem 17
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- northward a.
- Toward the north; nearer to the north than to the east or west point. [AS. noredhweard.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- canadian a.
- Of or pertaining to Canada.
- rebel a.
- Pertaining to rebels or rebellion; acting in revolt; rebellious; as, rebel troops. [F. rebelle, fr. L. rebellis. See Rebel, v. t.]
- knave n.
- A boy; especially, a boy servant. Wyclif. [OE., boy, servant, knave, AS. cnafa boy, youth; cf. AS. cnapa boy, youth, D. kna, G. knabe boy, knappe esquire, Icel. knapi, Sw. knape esquire, knäfvel knave.]
- houseless a.
- Destitute of the shelter of a house; shelterless; homeless; as, a houseless wanderer.
- homeless a.
- Destitute of a home. [AS.hamleas.]
- plight v. t.
- To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait. [OE. pliten; probably through Old French, fr. LL. plectare, L. plectere. See Plait, Ply.]
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- lagoon n.
- A shallow sound, channel, pond, or lake, especially one into which the sea flows; as, the lagoons of Venice. [It. or Sp. laguna, L. lacuna ditch, pool, pond,lacus lake. See Lake, and cf. Lacuna.]
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- bannered a.
- Decorated with a banner or banners
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- azalea n.
- A genus of showy flowering shrubs, mostly natives of China or of North America; false honeysuckle. The genus is scarcely distinct from Rhododendron.
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- landless a.
- Having no property in land.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Ruby-Crowned Kinglet 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 Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/the-ruby-crowned-kinglet.html, id L22766.
Form and metre
The Ruby-Crowned Kinglet is 81 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBACCA, complete in 3 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABBACCA kingA · ownB · throneB · wingA · mayC · wayC · kingA
- 2 AABBCCDDEEFFGGAAHHII landA · standA · wheatB · completeB · wideC · mountainsideC · pineD · mineD · freeE · meE · brightF · nightF · spreadG · redG · plannedA · landA · nestH · restH · singI · kingI
- 3 ABBACCA kingA · lostB · frostB · stingA · octoberC · soberC · kingA
- 4 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKCCLLMMNN regionsA · legionsA · yearB · cheerB · roseC · uncloseC · woodD · floodD · treesE · freezeE · flightF · nightF · moonG · lagoonG · greenH · sheenH · homeI · comeI · grayJ · swayJ · sideK · bideK · glowsC · roseC · gladeL · madeL · courtM · sportM · singN · kingN
- 5 ABBACCA kingA · yoursB · enduresB · springA · slenderC · pretenderC · kingA
- 6 AABBCCDDEE divineA · mineA · crownsB · townsB · ringsC · wingsC · flyD · skyD · singE · kingE
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Where's your kingdom, little king? | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Where the land you call your own, | 7 | ······· |
| Where your palace and your throne? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Fluttering lightly on the wing | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Through the blossom-world of May, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Whither lies your royal way, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Little king? | 3 | /˘· |
| Far to northward lies a land | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Where the trees together stand | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Closely as the blades of wheat | 7 | /˘····· |
| When the summer is complete. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Rolling like an ocean wide | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Over vale and mountainside, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Balsam, hemlock, spruce and pine,-- | 7 | /˘/···· |
| All those mighty trees are mine. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| There's a river flowing free,-- | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| All its waves belong to me. | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| There's a lake so clear and bright | 7 | ······· |
| Stars shine out of it all night; | 7 | ······· |
| Rowan-berries round it spread | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Like a belt of coral red. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Never royal garden planned | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Fair as my Canadian land! | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| There I build my summer nest, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| There I reign and there I rest, | 7 | ······· |
| While from dawn to dark I sing, | 7 | ······· |
| Happy kingdom! Lucky king! | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Back again, my little king! | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Is your happy kingdom lost | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| To the rebel knave, Jack Frost? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Have you felt the snow-flakes sting? | 7 | ······· |
| Houseless, homeless in October, | 8 | /˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Whither now? Your plight is sober, | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Exiled king! | 3 | /·· |
| Far to southward lie the regions | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Where my loyal flower-legions | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Hold possession of the year, | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Filling every month with cheer. | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Christmas wakes the winter rose; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| New Year daffodils unclose; | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Yellow jasmine through the wood | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Flows in February flood, | 7 | ··/˘·˘· |
| Dropping from the tallest trees | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Golden streams that never freeze. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Thither now I take my flight | 7 | /˘····· |
| Down the pathway of the night, | 7 | ··/···· |
| Till I see the southern moon | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Glisten on the broad lagoon, | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Where the cypress' dusky green, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| And the dark magnolia's sheen, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Weave a shelter round my home. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| There the snow-storms never come; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| There the bannered mosses gray | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Like a curtain gently sway, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Hanging low on every side | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Round the covert where I bide, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Till the March azalea glows, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Royal red and heavenly rose, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Through the Carolina glade | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Where my winter home is made. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| There I hold my southern court, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Full of merriment and sport: | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| There I take my ease and sing, | 7 | ······· |
| Happy kingdom! Lucky king! | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Little boaster, vagrant king, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Neither north nor south is yours, | 7 | /˘····· |
| You've no kingdom that endures! | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Wandering every fall and spring, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| With your ruby crown so slender, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Are you only a Pretender, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Landless king? | 3 | /˘· |
| Never king by right divine | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Ruled a richer realm than mine! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| What are lands and golden crowns, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Armies, fortresses and towns, | 7 | /˘/˘˘·· |
| Jewels, sceptres, robes and rings,-- | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| What are these to song and wings? | 7 | ······· |
| Everywhere that I can fly, | 7 | /˘····· |
| There I own the earth and sky; | 7 | ······· |
| Everywhere that I can sing. | 7 | /˘····· |
| There I'm happy as a king. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.