Songs to Seraphine IV
In moonlit splendor rests the sea,The soft waves ripple along.My heart beats low and heavily,I think of the ancient song.
The ancient song that quaintly singsTowns lost in olden times;And how from the sea's abyss there ringsThe sound of prayers and chimes.
But pious prayers and chimes, I ween,Are offered all in vain.For that which once hath buried beenMay never come back again.
Words in this poem
- moonlit a.
- Illumined by the moon.
- quaintly adv.
- In a quaint manner.
- olden a.
- Old; ancient; as, the olden time.
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Songs to Seraphine IV 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 IV, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/songs-to-seraphine-iv.html, id L15419.
Form and metre
Songs to Seraphine IV is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 sea · alongA · heavily · songA
- 2 ABAB singsA · timesB · ringsA · chimesB
- 3 ABAB weenA · vainB · beenA · againB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In moonlit splendor rests the sea, | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| The soft waves ripple along. | 7 | ···/˘˘/ |
| My heart beats low and heavily, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| I think of the ancient song. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The ancient song that quaintly sings | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Towns lost in olden times; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And how from the sea's abyss there rings | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| The sound of prayers and chimes. | 6 | ······ |
| But pious prayers and chimes, I ween, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Are offered all in vain. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| For that which once hath buried been | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| May never come back again. | 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.