Songs to Seraphine I
In the dreamy wood I wander,In the wood at even-tide;And thy slender, graceful figureWanders ever by my side.
Is not this thy white veil floating?Is not that thy gentle face?Is it but the moonlight breakingThrough the dark fir-branches' space?
Can these tears so softly flowingBe my very own I hear?Or indeed, art thou beside me,Weeping, darling, close anear?
Words in this poem
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- anear v. t.
- To near; to approach.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Songs to Seraphine I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, the Emma Lazarus 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: Heinrich Heine, Songs to Seraphine I, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/songs-to-seraphine-i.html, id L15416.
Form and metre
Songs to Seraphine I is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A wander · tideA · figure · sideA
- 2 -A-A floating · faceA · breaking · spaceA
- 3 -A-A flowing · hearA · me · anearA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In the dreamy wood I wander, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| In the wood at even-tide; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And thy slender, graceful figure | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Wanders ever by my side. | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Is not this thy white veil floating? | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Is not that thy gentle face? | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Is it but the moonlight breaking | 8 | ····/·/˘ |
| Through the dark fir-branches' space? | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Can these tears so softly flowing | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Be my very own I hear? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Or indeed, art thou beside me, | 8 | ·˘/··˘/· |
| Weeping, darling, close anear? | 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.