Nora: A Serenade
While Night like a spirit steals up o'er the hills;The thrush from his tree where he chanted all day,No longer his music in ecstasy trills.Then, Nora, be near me; thy presence doth cheer me,Thine eye hath a gleam that is truer than gold.
I cannot but love thee; so do not reprove me,If the strength of my passion should make me too bold.Nora, pride of my heart--Rosy cheeks, cherry lips, sparkling with glee,--Wake from thy slumbers, wherever thou art;Wake from thy slumbers to me.Ah, Nora, my Nora, there 's love in the air,--
It stirs in the numbers that thrill in my brain;Oh, sweet, sweet is love with its mingling of care,Though joy travels only a step before pain.Be roused from thy slumbers and list to my numbers;My heart is poured out in this song unto thee.Oh, be thou not cruel, thou treasure, thou jewel;Turn thine ear to my pleading and hearken to me.
Words in this poem
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- wherever adv.
- At or in whatever place; wheresoever.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Nora: A Serenade is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, Nora: A Serenade, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/nora-a-serenade.html, id L00556.
Form and metre
Nora: A Serenade is 19 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in anapaestic 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 A-ABC hillsA · day · trillsA · meB · goldC
- 2 BCDBDBE meB · boldC · heartD · gleeB · artD · meB · airE
- 3 FEF-B-B brainF · careE · painF · numbers · theeB · jewel · meB
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| While Night like a spirit steals up o'er the hills; | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| The thrush from his tree where he chanted all day, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| No longer his music in ecstasy trills. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘˘· |
| Then, Nora, be near me; thy presence doth cheer me, | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
| Thine eye hath a gleam that is truer than gold. | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| I cannot but love thee; so do not reprove me, | 12 | ·˘/······˘/· |
| If the strength of my passion should make me too bold. | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Nora, pride of my heart-- | 6 | /˘···· |
| Rosy cheeks, cherry lips, sparkling with glee,-- | 10 | /˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Wake from thy slumbers, wherever thou art; | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘·· |
| Wake from thy slumbers to me. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Ah, Nora, my Nora, there 's love in the air,-- | 12 | ·/˘·/˘······ |
| It stirs in the numbers that thrill in my brain; | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Oh, sweet, sweet is love with its mingling of care, | 12 | ·······/˘˘·· |
| Though joy travels only a step before pain. | 11 | ··/˘/˘····· |
| Be roused from thy slumbers and list to my numbers; | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
| My heart is poured out in this song unto thee. | 12 | ····˘······· |
| Oh, be thou not cruel, thou treasure, thou jewel; | 12 | ····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Turn thine ear to my pleading and hearken to me. | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
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.