The Melody
The youth in the woods spent the whole day long,The whole day long;For there he had heard such a wonderful song,Wonderful song.
Willow-wood gave him a flute so fair,A flute so fair,--To try, if within were the melody rare,Melody rare.
Melody whispered and said: "I am here!"Said: "I am here!"But while he was listening, it fled from his ear,Fled from his ear.
Oft when he slept, it to him crept,It to him crept;And over his forehead in love it swept,In love it swept.
When he would seize it, his sleep took flight,His sleep took flight;The melody hung in the pallid night,In the pallid night.
"Lord, O my God, take me therein,Take me therein!The melody rare all my soul doth win,My soul doth win."
Answered the Lord: "'T is your friend alone,Your friend alone;Though never an hour you it shall own,You it shall own."
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Melody is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, the Arthur Hubbell Palmer translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, The Melody, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/the-melody.html, id L29240.
Form and metre
The Melody is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 AAAA longA · longA · songA · songA
- 2 AAAA fairA · fairA · rareA · rareA
- 3 AAAA hereA · hereA · earA · earA
- 4 AAAA creptA · creptA · sweptA · sweptA
- 5 AAAA flightA · flightA · nightA · nightA
- 6 AAAA thereinA · thereinA · winA · winA
- 7 AAAA aloneA · aloneA · ownA · ownA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The youth in the woods spent the whole day long, | 10 | ·········· |
| The whole day long; | 4 | ···· |
| For there he had heard such a wonderful song, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Wonderful song. | 4 | /˘˘· |
| Willow-wood gave him a flute so fair, | 9 | /········ |
| A flute so fair,-- | 4 | ···· |
| To try, if within were the melody rare, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Melody rare. | 4 | /˘˘· |
| Melody whispered and said: "I am here!" | 9 | /˘/˘····· |
| Said: "I am here!" | 4 | ···· |
| But while he was listening, it fled from his ear, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Fled from his ear. | 4 | ···· |
| Oft when he slept, it to him crept, | 8 | ········ |
| It to him crept; | 4 | ···· |
| And over his forehead in love it swept, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| In love it swept. | 4 | ···· |
| When he would seize it, his sleep took flight, | 9 | ········· |
| His sleep took flight; | 4 | ···· |
| The melody hung in the pallid night, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| In the pallid night. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| "Lord, O my God, take me therein, | 8 | ········ |
| Take me therein! | 4 | ···· |
| The melody rare all my soul doth win, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| My soul doth win." | 4 | ···· |
| Answered the Lord: "'T is your friend alone, | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Your friend alone; | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Though never an hour you it shall own, | 8 | ·/·/···· |
| You it shall own." | 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.