Urbs Coronata
O youngest of the giant broodOf cities far-renowned;In wealth and glory thou hast passedThy rivals at a bound;Thou art a mighty queen, New York;And how wilt thou be crowned?
"Weave me no palace-wreath of Pride,"The royal city said;"Nor forge of frowning fortress-wallsA helmet for my head;But let me wear a diademOf Wisdom's towers instead."
She bowed herself, she spent herself,She wrought her will forsooth,And set upon her island heightA citadel of Truth,A house of Light, a home of Thought,A shrine of noble Youth.
Stand here, ye City College towers,And look both up and down;Remember all who wrought for youWithin the toiling town;Remember all their hopes for you,And be the City's Crown.
Words in this poem
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- forsooth v. t.
- To address respectfully with the term forsooth.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Urbs Coronata 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, Urbs Coronata, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/urbs-coronata.html, id L22907.
Form and metre
Urbs Coronata is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in iambic 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 -A-A-A brood · renownedA · passed · boundA · york · crownedA
- 2 -A-A-A pride · saidA · walls · headA · diadem · insteadA
- 3 -A-A-A herself · forsoothA · height · truthA · thought · youthA
- 4 -ABABA towers · downA · youB · townA · youB · crownA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O youngest of the giant brood | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of cities far-renowned; | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| In wealth and glory thou hast passed | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thy rivals at a bound; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Thou art a mighty queen, New York; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And how wilt thou be crowned? | 6 | ······ |
| "Weave me no palace-wreath of Pride," | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The royal city said; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| "Nor forge of frowning fortress-walls | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| A helmet for my head; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But let me wear a diadem | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of Wisdom's towers instead." | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘/ |
| She bowed herself, she spent herself, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| She wrought her will forsooth, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And set upon her island height | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A citadel of Truth, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A house of Light, a home of Thought, | 8 | ········ |
| A shrine of noble Youth. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Stand here, ye City College towers, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| And look both up and down; | 6 | ······ |
| Remember all who wrought for you | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Within the toiling town; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Remember all their hopes for you, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| And be the City's Crown. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.