To a Young Girl Singing
Oh, what do you know of the song, my dear,And how have you made it your own?You have caught the turn of the melody clear,And you give it again with a golden tone,Till the wonder-word and the wedded noteAre flowing out of your beautiful throatWith a liquid charm for every ear:And they talk of your art,--but for you aloneThe song is a thing, unheard, unknown;You only have learned it by rote.
But when you have lived for awhile, my dear,I think you will learn it anew!For a joy will come, or a grief, or a fear,That will alter the look of the world for you;And the lyric you learned as a bit of art,Will wake to life as a wonderful partOf the love you feel so deep and true;And the thrill of a laugh or the throb of a tear,Will come with your song to all who hear;For then you will know it by heart.
Words in this poem
- wedded a.
- Joined in wedlock; married.
- unheard a.
- Not heard; not perceived by the ear; as, words unheard by those present.
- rote v. t.
- To learn or repeat by rote.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- throb v. i.
- To beat, or pulsate, with more than usual force or rapidity; to beat in consequence of agitation; to palpitate; -- said of the heart, pulse, etc. [OE. ; of uncertain origin; cf. Russ. trepete a trembling, and E. trepidation.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Young Girl Singing 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, To a Young Girl Singing, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/to-a-young-girl-singing.html, id L22981.
Form and metre
To a Young Girl Singing is 20 lines in 2 stanzas of 10 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCCABBC dearA · ownB · clearA · toneB · noteC · throatC · earA · aloneB · unknownB · roteC
- 2 ABABCCBAAC dearA · anewB · fearA · youB · artC · partC · trueB · tearA · hearA · heartC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, what do you know of the song, my dear, | 10 | ·········· |
| And how have you made it your own? | 8 | ········ |
| You have caught the turn of the melody clear, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And you give it again with a golden tone, | 11 | ····˘/··/˘· |
| Till the wonder-word and the wedded note | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Are flowing out of your beautiful throat | 10 | ·/˘···/˘˘· |
| With a liquid charm for every ear: | 10 | ··/˘··/˘˘· |
| And they talk of your art,--but for you alone | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| The song is a thing, unheard, unknown; | 9 | ·····˘/˘/ |
| You only have learned it by rote. | 9 | ·/˘··˘··· |
| But when you have lived for awhile, my dear, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| I think you will learn it anew! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| For a joy will come, or a grief, or a fear, | 11 | ··········· |
| That will alter the look of the world for you; | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| And the lyric you learned as a bit of art, | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Will wake to life as a wonderful part | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| Of the love you feel so deep and true; | 9 | ········· |
| And the thrill of a laugh or the throb of a tear, | 12 | ············ |
| Will come with your song to all who hear; | 9 | ········· |
| For then you will know it by heart. | 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.