Analysis of Ameria's Welcome Home

Henry Van Dyke 1852 (Germantown, Pennsylvania) – 1933 (Princeton, New Jersey)



Oh, gallantly they fared forth in khaki and in blue,
America's crusading host of warriors bold and true;
They battled for the rights of man beside our brave Allies,
And now they're coming home to us with glory in their eyes.

Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me!
Our hearts are turning home again and there we long to be,
In our beautiful big country beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

Our boys have seen the Old World as none have seen before.
They know the grisly horror of the German gods of war:
The noble faith of Britain and the hero-heart of France,
The soul of Belgium's fortitude and Italy's romance.

They bore our country's great word across the rolling sea,
'America swears brotherhood with all the just and free.'
They wrote that word victorious on fields of mortal strife,
And many a valiant lad was proud to seal it with his life.

Oh, welcome home in Heaven's peace, dear spirits of the dead!
And welcome home ye living sons America hath bred!
The lords of war are beaten down, your glorious task is done;
You fought to make the whole world free, and the victory is won.

Now it's home again, and home again, our hearts are turning west,
Of all the lands beneath the sun America is best.
We're going home to our own folks, beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.


Scheme aabb ccdD eeff ccgg hhii jjdD
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1100111010001 010001011100101 110101110110110 01110111110011 111010101010011 101110101011111 010100110010101 10111110011111 10111011111101 11010101010111 01011100010111 0111010010001 11101011010101 0100110110101 11110100111101 010010111111111 11010101110101 01011101010011 011111011100111 111101110010011 1110101011011101 11010101010011 110111011010101 10111110011111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,399
Words 264
Sentences 13
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 45
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 181
Words per stanza (avg) 44
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:21 min read
126

Henry Van Dyke

Henry Jackson van Dyke was an American author, educator, and clergyman. more…

All Henry Van Dyke poems | Henry Van Dyke Books

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