# Undine explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Henry van Dyke Jr..

## What happens

The narrator recalls reading the fairy tale of Undine as a dreaming boy, feeling tearful joy and love and woe, and reflects that the beloved's spirit was then cradled in a star, sleeping and unaware of future dreams.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Sacrifice

The fairy tale of love and woe entrances the narrator's heart with tearful joy.

### The Pilgrimage of Life

The narrator looks back from a distant time to a dreaming boyhood, and the beloved's spirit is cradled in a star, awaiting future dreams.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The dreaming boy who reads Undine and weeps with tearful joy.

### Vera

The beloved whose spirit was cradled in a star, sleeping and unconscious of coming dreams.

## Key lines

> ’Twas far away and long ago, When I was but a dreaming boy, This fairy tale of love and woe Entranced my heart with tearful joy;

It was long ago in a distant time, when I was a boy lost in dreams, that this story of love and sorrow captivated me, filling my heart with joyful tears.

_The narrator recalls the powerful emotional impact of reading Undine in his youth._

> And while with white Undine I wept Your spirit⁠—ah, how strange it seems⁠— Was cradled in some star, and slept, Unconscious of her coming dreams.

And as I wept with the pale Undine, your spirit—how strange it feels—was resting in a distant star, asleep and unaware of the dreams that awaited her.

_The narrator marvels that while he wept over the story, his beloved's spirit was peacefully sleeping in a star, oblivious to her future._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_10_se/chapters/undine
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_10_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_10_se/chapters