Moonlight
Amid the chatter gay and madSaint Mark to Lido wafts, a tuneLike as a rocket riseth gladAs fountain riseth to the moon.
But in that air with laughter stirred,That shakes its bells far out to sea,Regret, a little stifled bird,Mingles its frail sob audibly.
And in a mist of memory clad,Like dream well-nigh effaced, I viewThe sweet Beloved, fair and sad,Of dear, long-vanished days I knew.
Ah, pale she is! My soul in tearsAn April day remembers yet:--We sought the violets by the meres,And in the grass our fingers met. . .
The vibrant note of violinIs the child voice that struck my heart,Exquisite, plaintive, argentine,With all the anguish of its dart.
So sweetly, falsely, doth it steal,So cruel, yet so tender, too,So cold, so burning, that I feelA deadly pleasure pierce me through;
Until my heart, an archway deepWhose waters feed the fountain's lip,Lets tears of blood in silence weepInto my bosom drip by drip.
O Carnival of Venice!--themeSo chilling sad, yet ever warm!Where laughter toucheth tears supreme,--How hast thou hurt me with thy charm!
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- vibrant a.
- Vibrating; tremulous; resonant; as, vibrant drums. [L. vibrans, p. pr.: cf. F. vibrant. See Vibrate.]
- argentine a.
- Pertaining to, or resembling, silver; made of, or sounding like, silver; silvery.
- archway n.
- A way or passage under an arch.
- drip v. i.
- To fall in drops; as, water drips from the eaves. [Akin to LG. drippen, Dan. dryppe, from a noun. See Drop.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Moonlight is in the public domain. This text is taken from Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, the Agnes Lee translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Théophile Gautier, Moonlight, in Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gautier-enamels-cameos/moonlight.html, id L26992.
Form and metre
Moonlight is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See 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 ABAB madA · tuneB · gladA · moonB
- 2 ABAB stirredA · seaB · birdA · audiblyB
- 3 ABAB cladA · viewB · sadA · knewB
- 4 ABAB tearsA · yetB · meresA · metB
- 5 ABAB violinA · heartB · argentineA · dartB
- 6 ABAB stealA · tooB · feelA · throughB
- 7 ABAB deepA · lipB · weepA · dripB
- 8 ABAB themeA · warmB · supremeA · charmB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Amid the chatter gay and mad | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Saint Mark to Lido wafts, a tune | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Like as a rocket riseth glad | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As fountain riseth to the moon. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But in that air with laughter stirred, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That shakes its bells far out to sea, | 8 | ········ |
| Regret, a little stifled bird, | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Mingles its frail sob audibly. | 8 | /˘···/˘˘ |
| And in a mist of memory clad, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Like dream well-nigh effaced, I view | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| The sweet Beloved, fair and sad, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Of dear, long-vanished days I knew. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Ah, pale she is! My soul in tears | 8 | ········ |
| An April day remembers yet:-- | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| We sought the violets by the meres, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And in the grass our fingers met. . . | 8 | ····//˘· |
| The vibrant note of violin | 8 | ·/˘··˘˘/ |
| Is the child voice that struck my heart, | 8 | ········ |
| Exquisite, plaintive, argentine, | 8 | /˘˘/˘/˘· |
| With all the anguish of its dart. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So sweetly, falsely, doth it steal, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| So cruel, yet so tender, too, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| So cold, so burning, that I feel | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A deadly pleasure pierce me through; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Until my heart, an archway deep | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Whose waters feed the fountain's lip, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Lets tears of blood in silence weep | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Into my bosom drip by drip. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O Carnival of Venice!--theme | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| So chilling sad, yet ever warm! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Where laughter toucheth tears supreme,-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| How hast thou hurt me with thy charm! | 8 | ········ |
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.