Nocturne: In Anjou
I dreamed of Sappho on a summer night.Her nightingales were singing in the treesBeside the castled river; and the windFell like a woman's fingers on my cheek.And then I slept and dreamed and marked no change;The night went on with me into my dream.This only I remember, that I cried:"O Sappho! ere I leave this paradise,Sing me one song of those lost books of yoursFor which we poets still go sorrowing;That when I meet my fellows on the earthI may rejoice them more than many pearls;"And she, the sweetly smiling, answered me,As one who dreams, "I have forgotten them."
Words in this poem
- sappho n.
- Any one of several species of brilliant South American humming birds of the genus Sappho, having very bright-colored and deeply forked tails; -- called also firetail. [See Sapphic.]
- castled a.
- Having a castle or castles; supporting a castle; as, a castled height or crag.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Nocturne: In Anjou is in the public domain. This text is taken from More Songs From Vagabondia, Project Gutenberg ebook #18007; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, Nocturne: In Anjou, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/nocturne-in-anjou.html, id L24708.
Form and metre
Nocturne: In Anjou is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic 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.
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I dreamed of Sappho on a summer night. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Her nightingales were singing in the trees | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Beside the castled river; and the wind | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| Fell like a woman's fingers on my cheek. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And then I slept and dreamed and marked no change; | 10 | ·········· |
| The night went on with me into my dream. | 10 | ·········· |
| This only I remember, that I cried: | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| "O Sappho! ere I leave this paradise, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Sing me one song of those lost books of yours | 10 | ·········· |
| For which we poets still go sorrowing; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| That when I meet my fellows on the earth | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I may rejoice them more than many pearls;" | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| And she, the sweetly smiling, answered me, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| As one who dreams, "I have forgotten them." | 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.