Turn o' the Tide
The tide flows in to the harbour,--The bold tide, the gold tide, the flood o' the sunlit sea,--And the little ships riding at anchor,Are swinging and slanting their prows to the ocean, pantingTo lift their wings to the wide wild air,And venture a voyage they know not where,--To fly away and be free!
The tide runs out of the harbour,--The low tide, the slow tide, the ebb o' the moonlit bay,--And the little ships rocking at anchor,Are rounding and turning their bows to the landward, yearningTo breathe the breath of the sun-warmed strand,To rest in the lee of the high hill land,--To hold their haven and stay!
My heart goes round with the vessels,--My wild heart, my child heart, in love with the sea and the land,--And the turn o' the tide passes through it,In rising and falling with mystical currents, callingAt morn, to range where the far waves foam,At night, to a harbour in love's true home,With the hearts that understand!
Words in this poem
- harbour n.
- A station for rest and entertainment; a place of security and comfort; a refuge; a shelter. [OE herbor, herberwe, herberge, Icel. herbergi (cf. OHG. heriberga), orig., a shelter for soldiers; herr army + bjarga to save, help, defend; akin to AS. here ar]
- sunlit a.
- Lighted by the sun.
- moonlit a.
- Illumined by the moon.
- rounding a.
- Round or nearly round; becoming round; roundish.
- landward adv.
- Toward the land.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Turn o' the Tide 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, Turn o' the Tide, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/turn-o-the-tide.html, id L22774.
Form and metre
Turn o' the Tide is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 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 -A--BBA harbour · seaA · anchor · panting · airB · whereB · freeA
- 2 -A--BBA harbour · bayA · anchor · yearning · strandB · landB · stayA
- 3 -A--BBA vessels · landA · it · calling · foamB · homeB · understandA
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 tide flows in to the harbour,-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The bold tide, the gold tide, the flood o' the sunlit sea,-- | 13 | ··········/·· |
| And the little ships riding at anchor, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Are swinging and slanting their prows to the ocean, panting | 13 | ·/˘·/˘····//˘ |
| To lift their wings to the wide wild air, | 9 | ········· |
| And venture a voyage they know not where,-- | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| To fly away and be free! | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| The tide runs out of the harbour,-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The low tide, the slow tide, the ebb o' the moonlit bay,-- | 13 | ··········/·· |
| And the little ships rocking at anchor, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Are rounding and turning their bows to the landward, yearning | 14 | ·/˘·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| To breathe the breath of the sun-warmed strand, | 10 | ········˘· |
| To rest in the lee of the high hill land,-- | 10 | ·········· |
| To hold their haven and stay! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| My heart goes round with the vessels,-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| My wild heart, my child heart, in love with the sea and the land,-- | 14 | ·············· |
| And the turn o' the tide passes through it, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| In rising and falling with mystical currents, calling | 13 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘/˘/˘ |
| At morn, to range where the far waves foam, | 9 | ········· |
| At night, to a harbour in love's true home, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| With the hearts that understand! | 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.