Wings of a Dove II
But when the filmy veil of dusk was falling,Home flew the dove to seek his nest,Deep in the forest where his mate was callingTo love and rest.
Peace, heart of mine! no longer sigh to wander;Lose not thy life in barren quest.There are no happy islands over yonder;Come home and rest.
Words in this poem
- filmy a.
- Composed of film or films.
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wings of a Dove II 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, Wings of a Dove II, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/wings-of-a-dove-ii.html, id L22754.
Form and metre
Wings of a Dove II is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 falling · nestA · calling · restA
- 2 ABAB wanderA · questB · yonderA · restB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| But when the filmy veil of dusk was falling, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Home flew the dove to seek his nest, | 8 | ········ |
| Deep in the forest where his mate was calling | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| To love and rest. | 4 | ···· |
| Peace, heart of mine! no longer sigh to wander; | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Lose not thy life in barren quest. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| There are no happy islands over yonder; | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Come home and rest. | 4 | ···· |
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.