To Olive Wheeler
Winter on Mount Shasta,April down below;Golden hours of glowing sun,Sudden showers of snow!Under leafless thicketsEarly wild-flowers cling;But, oh, my dear, I'm fain to hearThe first bird o' Spring!
Alders are in tassel,Maples are in bud;Waters of the blue McCloudShout in joyful flood;Through the giant pine-treesFlutters many a wing;But, oh, my dear, I long to hearThe first bird o' Spring!
Candle-light and fire-lightMingle at "the Bend;"'Neath the roof of Bo-hai-panLight and shadow blend.Sweeter than a wood-thrushA maid begins to sing;And, oh, my dear, I'm glad to hearThe first bird o' Spring!
Words in this poem
- shasta n.
- A mountain peak, etc., in California.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Olive Wheeler 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 Olive Wheeler, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/to-olive-wheeler.html, id L22983.
Form and metre
To Olive Wheeler is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 -A-A-B-B shasta · belowA · sun · snowA · thickets · clingB · hear · springB
- 2 -A-A-B-B tassel · budA · mccloud · floodA · trees · wingB · hear · springB
- 3 -A-A-B-B light · bendA · pan · blendA · thrush · singB · hear · springB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Winter on Mount Shasta, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| April down below; | 5 | /˘··· |
| Golden hours of glowing sun, | 8 | /˘/˘·/˘· |
| Sudden showers of snow! | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Under leafless thickets | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Early wild-flowers cling; | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| But, oh, my dear, I'm fain to hear | 8 | ········ |
| The first bird o' Spring! | 5 | ····· |
| Alders are in tassel, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Maples are in bud; | 5 | /˘··· |
| Waters of the blue McCloud | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Shout in joyful flood; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Through the giant pine-trees | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Flutters many a wing; | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| But, oh, my dear, I long to hear | 8 | ········ |
| The first bird o' Spring! | 5 | ····· |
| Candle-light and fire-light | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Mingle at "the Bend;" | 5 | /˘··· |
| 'Neath the roof of Bo-hai-pan | 7 | ······· |
| Light and shadow blend. | 5 | ··/·· |
| Sweeter than a wood-thrush | 6 | /˘···· |
| A maid begins to sing; | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| And, oh, my dear, I'm glad to hear | 8 | ········ |
| The first bird o' Spring! | 5 | ····· |
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.