The Siesta: From the Spanish
Vientecico murmurador,Que lo gozas y andas todo, &c.
Airs, that wander and murmur round,Bearing delight where'er ye blow!Make in the elms a lulling sound,While my lady sleeps in the shade below.
Lighten and lengthen her noonday rest,Till the heat of the noonday sun is o'er.Sweet be her slumbers! though in my breastThe pain she has waked may slumber no more.Breathing soft from the blue profound,Bearing delight where'er ye blow,Make in the elms a lulling sound,While my lady sleeps in the shade below.
Airs! that over the bending boughs,And under the shade of pendent leaves,Murmur soft, like my timid vowsOr the secret sighs my bosom heaves,--Gently sweeping the grassy ground,Bearing delight where'er ye blow,Make in the elms a lulling sound,While my lady sleeps in the shade below.
Words in this poem
- noonday n.
- Midday; twelve o'clock in the day; noon.
- heaves n.
- A disease of horses, characterized by difficult breathing, with heaving of the flank, wheezing, flatulency, and a peculiar cough; broken wind.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Siesta: 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 Siesta: From the Spanish, in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/the-siesta-from-the-spanish.html, id L18541.
Form and metre
The Siesta: From the Spanish is 22 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in trochaic pentameter.
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.
- 2 ABAB roundA · blowB · soundA · belowB
- 3 A-A-BCBC restA · o'er · breastA · more · profoundB · blowC · soundB · belowC
- 4 ABABCDCD boughsA · leavesB · vowsA · heavesB · groundC · blowD · soundC · belowD
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 trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Vientecico murmurador, | 8 | ········ |
| Que lo gozas y andas todo, &c. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Airs, that wander and murmur round, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Bearing delight where'er ye blow! | 9 | /˘˘/˘˘/·· |
| Make in the elms a lulling sound, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| While my lady sleeps in the shade below. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Lighten and lengthen her noonday rest, | 9 | /˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Till the heat of the noonday sun is o'er. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Sweet be her slumbers! though in my breast | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The pain she has waked may slumber no more. | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Breathing soft from the blue profound, | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| Bearing delight where'er ye blow, | 9 | /˘˘/˘˘/·· |
| Make in the elms a lulling sound, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| While my lady sleeps in the shade below. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Airs! that over the bending boughs, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And under the shade of pendent leaves, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Murmur soft, like my timid vows | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Or the secret sighs my bosom heaves,-- | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| Gently sweeping the grassy ground, | 8 | /˘/˘·/˘· |
| Bearing delight where'er ye blow, | 9 | /˘˘/˘˘/·· |
| Make in the elms a lulling sound, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| While my lady sleeps in the shade below. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
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.