The Serenade: From the Spanish

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) · 1821–1876

common measure · 60 lines · from Poems

If slumber, sweet Lisena!Have stolen o'er thine eyes,As night steals o'er the gloryOf spring's transparent skies;

Wake, in thy scorn and beauty,And listen to the strainThat murmurs my devotion,That mourns for thy disdain.

Here by thy door at midnight,I pass the dreary hour,With plaintive sounds profaningThe silence of thy bower;

A tale of sorrow cherishedToo fondly to depart,Of wrong from love the flatterer,And my own wayward heart.

Twice, o'er this vale, the seasonsHave brought and borne awayThe January tempest,The genial wind of May;

Yet still my plaint is uttered,My tears and sighs are givenTo earth's unconscious waters,And wandering winds of heaven.

I saw from this fair region,The smile of summer pass,And myriad frost-stars glitterAmong the russet grass.

While winter seized the streamletsThat fled along the ground,And fast in chains of crystalThe truant murmurers bound.

I saw that to the forestThe nightingales had flown,And every sweet-voiced fountainHad hushed its silver tone.

The maniac winds, divorcingThe turtle from his mate,Raved through the leafy beeches,And left them desolate.

Now May, with life and music,The blooming valley fills,And rears her flowery archesFor all the little rills.

The minstrel bird of eveningComes back on joyous wings,And, like the harp's soft murmur,Is heard the gush of springs.

And deep within the forestAre wedded turtles seen,Their nuptial chambers seeking,Their chambers close and green.

The rugged trees are minglingTheir flowery sprays in love;The ivy climbs the laurel,To clasp the boughs above.

They change--but thou, Lisena,Art cold while I complain:Why to thy lover onlyShould spring return in vain?

Words in this poem

dreary a.: Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
fondly adv.: Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
depart v. i.: To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
wayward a.: Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. [OE. weiward, for aweiward, i. e., turned away. See Away, and -ward.]
vale n.: A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
january n.: The first month of the year, containing thirty-one days. [L. Januarius, fr. Janus an old Latin deity, the god of the sun and the year, to whom the month of January was sacred; cf. janua a door, Skr. ya to go.]
genial a.: Contributing to, or concerned in, propagation or production; generative; procreative; productive. [L. genialis: cf. OF. genial. See Genius.]
plaint n.: Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament. Chaucer."The Psalmist's mournful plaint." [OE. plainte, pleynte, F. plainte, fr. L. plangere, planctum (plancta, fem. p.p.), to beat, beat the breast, lament. Cf. Complain, Plague, Plangent.]
myriad n.: The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
flown a.: Flushed, inflated.
maniac a.: Raving with madness; raging with disordered intellect; affected with mania; mad. [F. maniaque. See Mania.]
wedded a.: Joined in wedlock; married.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The Serenade: From the Spanish is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by William Cullen Bryant, Project Gutenberg ebook #16341; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: William Cullen Bryant, The Serenade: From the Spanish, in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/the-serenade-from-the-spanish.html, id L07338.

Form and metre

The Serenade: From the Spanish is 60 lines in 15 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).

See other poems in common measure.

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 lisena · eyes^A · glory · skies^A
2 -AAA beauty · strain^A · devotion^A · disdain^A
3 -A-A midnight · hour^A · profaning · bower^A
4 -A-A cherished · depart^A · flatterer · heart^A
5 -A-A seasons · away^A · tempest · may^A
7 -A-A region · pass^A · glitter · grass^A
8 -A-A streamlets · ground^A · crystal · bound^A
9 -AAA forest · flown^A · fountain^A · tone^A
10 -A-A divorcing · mate^A · beeches · desolate^A
11 -A-A music · fills^A · arches · rills^A
12 -A-A evening · wings^A · murmur · springs^A
13 -A-A forest · seen^A · seeking · green^A
14 -A-A mingling · love^A · laurel · above^A
15 -A-A lisena · complain^A · only · vain^A

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 common measure. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
If slumber, sweet Lisena!	7	·/˘····
Have stolen o'er thine eyes,	6	·/˘···
As night steals o'er the glory	7	·····/˘
Of spring's transparent skies;	6	··˘/˘·
Wake, in thy scorn and beauty,	7	·····/˘
And listen to the strain	6	·/˘···
That murmurs my devotion,	7	·/˘·˘/˘
That mourns for thy disdain.	6	····˘/
Here by thy door at midnight,	7	·····/·
I pass the dreary hour,	7	···/˘/˘
With plaintive sounds profaning	7	·/˘·˘/˘
The silence of thy bower;	7	·/˘··/˘
A tale of sorrow cherished	7	···/˘/˘
Too fondly to depart,	6	·/˘·˘/
Of wrong from love the flatterer,	8	·····/˘˘
And my own wayward heart.	6	···/˘·
Twice, o'er this vale, the seasons	7	·····/˘
Have brought and borne away	6	····˘/
The January tempest,	7	·/˘·˘/˘
The genial wind of May;	6	·/˘···
Yet still my plaint is uttered,	7	·····/˘
My tears and sighs are given	7	·····/˘
To earth's unconscious waters,	7	···/˘/˘
And wandering winds of heaven.	8	·/˘˘··/˘
I saw from this fair region,	7	·····/˘
The smile of summer pass,	6	···/˘·
And myriad frost-stars glitter	8	·/˘˘··/˘
Among the russet grass.	6	···/˘·
While winter seized the streamlets	7	·/˘····
That fled along the ground,	6	··˘/··
And fast in chains of crystal	7	·····/˘
The truant murmurers bound.	7	·/˘····
I saw that to the forest	7	·····/˘
The nightingales had flown,	6	·/˘˘··
And every sweet-voiced fountain	8	·/˘˘··/˘
Had hushed its silver tone.	7	··˘·/˘·
The maniac winds, divorcing	8	·/˘··˘/˘
The turtle from his mate,	6	·/˘···
Raved through the leafy beeches,	7	···/˘/˘
And left them desolate.	6	···/˘·
Now May, with life and music,	7	·····/˘
The blooming valley fills,	6	·/˘/˘·
And rears her flowery arches	8	···/˘˘/˘
For all the little rills.	6	···/˘·
The minstrel bird of evening	7	·/˘··/˘
Comes back on joyous wings,	6	···/˘·
And, like the harp's soft murmur,	7	·····/˘
Is heard the gush of springs.	6	······
And deep within the forest	7	·····/˘
Are wedded turtles seen,	6	·/˘/˘·
Their nuptial chambers seeking,	7	·/˘/˘/˘
Their chambers close and green.	6	·/˘···
The rugged trees are mingling	8	·/˘··/˘˘
Their flowery sprays in love;	7	·/˘˘···
The ivy climbs the laurel,	7	·/˘··/˘
To clasp the boughs above.	6	······
They change--but thou, Lisena,	7	·······
Art cold while I complain:	6	····˘/
Why to thy lover only	7	···/˘/˘
Should spring return in vain?	6	··˘/··

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