The Wind of Sorrow
The fire of love was burning, yet so lowThat in the peaceful dark it made no rays,And in the light of perfect-placid daysThe ashes hid the smouldering embers' glow.Vainly, for love's delight, we sought to throwNew pleasures on the pyre to make it blaze:In life's calm air and tranquil-prosperous waysWe missed the radiant heat of long ago.
Then in the night, a night of sad alarms,Bitter with pain and black with fog of fearsThat drove us trembling to each other's arms,Across the gulf of darkness and salt tearsInto life's calm the wind of sorrow came,And fanned the fire of love to clearest name.
Words in this poem
- placid a.
- Pleased; contented; unruffied; undisturbed; serene; peaceful; tranquil; quiet; gentle. [L. placidus, originally, pleasing, mild, from placere to please: cf. F. placide. See Please.]
- smouldering a.
- Being in a state of suppressed activity; quiet but not dead.
- pyre n.
- A funeral pile; a combustible heap on which the dead are burned; hence, any pile to be burnt. [L. pure, Gr. Fire.]
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wind of Sorrow 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 Wind of Sorrow, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/the-wind-of-sorrow.html, id L22856.
Form and metre
The Wind of Sorrow is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABBAABBA lowA · raysB · daysB · glowA · throwA · blazeB · waysB · agoA
- 2 ABABCC alarmsA · fearsB · armsA · tearsB · cameC · nameC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The fire of love was burning, yet so low | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| That in the peaceful dark it made no rays, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And in the light of perfect-placid days | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| The ashes hid the smouldering embers' glow. | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘· |
| Vainly, for love's delight, we sought to throw | 10 | /˘··˘/···· |
| New pleasures on the pyre to make it blaze: | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| In life's calm air and tranquil-prosperous ways | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| We missed the radiant heat of long ago. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Then in the night, a night of sad alarms, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Bitter with pain and black with fog of fears | 10 | /˘········ |
| That drove us trembling to each other's arms, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Across the gulf of darkness and salt tears | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Into life's calm the wind of sorrow came, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And fanned the fire of love to clearest name. | 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.