Songs to Seraphine IX
Gray night broods above the ocean,Little stars gleam sparkling o'er us.And the waters' many voicesChant in deep, protracted chorus.
Hark! the old northwind is playingOn the polished waves of ocean,That, like tubes of some great organ,Thrill and stir with sounding motion.
Partly pagan, partly sacred,Rise these melodies upswellingPassionately to the heavens,Where the joyous stars are dwelling.
And the stars wax large and larger,In bright mazes they are driven,Large as suns at last revolving,Through the spaces of vast heaven.
And weird harmonies they warbleWith the billows' music blending.Solar nightingales, they circleThrough the spheres strange concord sending.
And with mighty roar and trembling,Sky and ocean both are ringing;And a giant's stormy raptureFeel I in my bosom springing.
Words in this poem
- passionately adv.
- In a passionate manner; with strong feeling; ardently.
- warble v. t.
- To sing in a trilling, quavering, or vibratory manner; to modulate with turns or variations; to trill; as, certain birds are remarkable for warbling their songs. [OE. werbelen, OF. werbler; of Teutonic origin; cf. G. wirbeln to turn, to warble, D. wervelen, akin to E. whirl. See Whirl.]
- blending n.
- The act of mingling.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Songs to Seraphine IX 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 IX, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/songs-to-seraphine-ix.html, id L15424.
Form and metre
Songs to Seraphine IX is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 22 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 ocean · usA · voices · chorusA
- 2 -A-A playing · oceanA · organ · motionA
- 3 -A-A sacred · upswellingA · heavens · dwellingA
- 5 -A-A warble · blendingA · circle · sendingA
- 6 -A-A trembling · ringingA · rapture · springingA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gray night broods above the ocean, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Little stars gleam sparkling o'er us. | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
| And the waters' many voices | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Chant in deep, protracted chorus. | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| Hark! the old northwind is playing | 8 | ······/˘ |
| On the polished waves of ocean, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| That, like tubes of some great organ, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Thrill and stir with sounding motion. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Partly pagan, partly sacred, | 8 | /˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Rise these melodies upswelling | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Passionately to the heavens, | 8 | /˘˘˘··/˘ |
| Where the joyous stars are dwelling. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And the stars wax large and larger, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In bright mazes they are driven, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Large as suns at last revolving, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Through the spaces of vast heaven. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And weird harmonies they warble | 8 | ··/˘˘·/˘ |
| With the billows' music blending. | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Solar nightingales, they circle | 8 | /˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| Through the spheres strange concord sending. | 8 | ····/·/˘ |
| And with mighty roar and trembling, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘˘ |
| Sky and ocean both are ringing; | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And a giant's stormy rapture | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Feel I in my bosom springing. | 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.