To a Rose-Coloured Gown
How I love you in the robesThat disrobe so well your charms!Your dear breasts, twin ivory globes,And your bare sweet pagan arms.
Frail as frailest wing of bee,Fresher than the heart of rose,All the fabric delicate, free,Round your body gleams and glows,
Till from skin to silken thread,Silver shivers lightly win,And the rosy gown have shedRoses on the creamy skin.
Whence have you the mystic thing,Made of very flesh of you,Living mesh to mix and clingWith your glorious body's hue?
Did you take it from the rudOf the dawn? From Venus' shell?From a breast-flower nigh to bud?From a rose about to swell?
Doth the texture have its dyeFrom some blushing bashfulness?No--your portraits do not lie--Beauty beauty's form shall guess!
Down you cast your garment fair,Art-dreamed, sweet Reality,Like Borghese's princess, rareFor Canova's mastery!
Ah! the folds are lips of fireSweeping round your lovely formIn a folly of desire,With a weft of kisses warm!
Words in this poem
- disrobe v. t.
- To divest of a robe; to undress; figuratively, to strip of covering; to divest of that which clothes or decorates; as, autumn disrobes the fields of verdure.
- creamy a.
- Full of, or containing, cream; resembling cream, in nature, appearance, or taste; creamlike; unctuous.
- mesh n.
- The opening or space inclosed by the threads of a net between knot and knot, or the threads inclosing such a space; network; a net. [AS. masc, max, m; akin to D. maas, masche, OHG. masca, Icel. möskvi; cf. Lith. mazgas a knot, megsti to weave nets, to knot.]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- bashfulness n.
- The quality of being bashful.
- 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,]
- princess n.
- A female prince; a woman having sovereign power, or the rank of a prince. [F. princesse. See Prince, and cf. Princesse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Rose-Coloured Gown 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, To a Rose-Coloured Gown, in Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gautier-enamels-cameos/to-a-rose-coloured-gown.html, id L27004.
Form and metre
To a Rose-Coloured Gown is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 robesA · charmsB · globesA · armsB
- 2 ABAB beeA · roseB · freeA · glowsB
- 3 ABAB threadA · winB · shedA · skinB
- 4 ABAB thingA · youB · clingA · hueB
- 5 ABAB rudA · shellB · budA · swellB
- 6 ABAB dyeA · bashfulnessB · lieA · guessB
- 7 ABAB fairA · realityB · rareA · masteryB
- 8 ABAB fireA · formB · desireA · warmB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| How I love you in the robes | 7 | ······· |
| That disrobe so well your charms! | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Your dear breasts, twin ivory globes, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| And your bare sweet pagan arms. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Frail as frailest wing of bee, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Fresher than the heart of rose, | 7 | /˘····· |
| All the fabric delicate, free, | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| Round your body gleams and glows, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Till from skin to silken thread, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Silver shivers lightly win, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| And the rosy gown have shed | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Roses on the creamy skin. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Whence have you the mystic thing, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Made of very flesh of you, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Living mesh to mix and cling | 7 | /˘····· |
| With your glorious body's hue? | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Did you take it from the rud | 7 | ······· |
| Of the dawn? From Venus' shell? | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From a breast-flower nigh to bud? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| From a rose about to swell? | 7 | ······· |
| Doth the texture have its dye | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| From some blushing bashfulness? | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| No--your portraits do not lie-- | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Beauty beauty's form shall guess! | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Down you cast your garment fair, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Art-dreamed, sweet Reality, | 8 | ··˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Like Borghese's princess, rare | 7 | ····/˘· |
| For Canova's mastery! | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Ah! the folds are lips of fire | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Sweeping round your lovely form | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| In a folly of desire, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| With a weft of kisses warm! | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.