Stanzas for Music
I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name,mwThere is grief in the sound, there is guilt in the fame:But the tear which now burns on my cheek may impartThe deep thoughts that dwell in that silence of heart.
Too brief for our passion, too long for our peace,Were those hours--can their joy or their bitterness cease?We repent, we abjure, we will break from our chain,--We will part, we will fly to--unite it again!
Oh! thine be the gladness, and mine be the guilt!myForgive me, adored one!--forsake, if thou wilt;--But the heart which is thine shall expire undebasedmzAnd man shall not break it--whatever thou mayst.na
And stern to the haughty, but humble to thee,This soul, in its bitterest blackness, shall be:nbAnd our days seem as swift, and our moments more sweet,With thee by my side, than with worlds at our feet.
One sigh of thy sorrow, one look of thy love,ndShall turn me or fix, shall reward or reprove;And the heartless may wonder at all I resign--Thy lip shall reply, not to them, but to mine.
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
- abjure v. t.
- To renounce upon oath; to forswear; to disavow; as, to abjure allegiance to a prince. To abjure the realm, is to swear to abandon it forever. [L. abjurare to deny upon oath; ab + jurare to swear, fr. jus, juris, right, law; cf. F. abjurer. See Jury.]
- 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,]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
- heartless a.
- Without a heart.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stanzas for Music is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 3, Project Gutenberg ebook #21811; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lord Byron, Stanzas for Music, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/stanzas-for-music.html, id L23970.
Form and metre
Stanzas for Music is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 --AA name,mw · fame · impartA · heartA
- 2 AABB peaceA · ceaseA · chainB · againB
- 4 --AA thee · be:nb · sweetA · feetA
- 5 --AA love,nd · reprove · resignA · mineA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name,mw | 12 | ············ |
| There is grief in the sound, there is guilt in the fame: | 12 | ············ |
| But the tear which now burns on my cheek may impart | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| The deep thoughts that dwell in that silence of heart. | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Too brief for our passion, too long for our peace, | 12 | ···//˘···/˘· |
| Were those hours--can their joy or their bitterness cease? | 12 | ··/·····/˘˘· |
| We repent, we abjure, we will break from our chain,-- | 12 | ·˘/·˘/····/· |
| We will part, we will fly to--unite it again! | 12 | ·······/··˘/ |
| Oh! thine be the gladness, and mine be the guilt!my | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| Forgive me, adored one!--forsake, if thou wilt;-- | 12 | ˘/·˘/˘·˘/··· |
| But the heart which is thine shall expire undebasedmz | 13 | ·······˘/···· |
| And man shall not break it--whatever thou mayst.na | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| And stern to the haughty, but humble to thee, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| This soul, in its bitterest blackness, shall be:nb | 12 | ····/˘˘/˘··· |
| And our days seem as swift, and our moments more sweet, | 12 | ·/·····//˘·· |
| With thee by my side, than with worlds at our feet. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| One sigh of thy sorrow, one look of thy love,nd | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| Shall turn me or fix, shall reward or reprove; | 11 | ······˘/·˘/ |
| And the heartless may wonder at all I resign-- | 12 | ··/˘·/˘···˘/ |
| Thy lip shall reply, not to them, but to mine. | 11 | ···˘/······ |
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.