Songs to Seraphine XI
She stood beside the ocean,And sighed as one oppressed,With such a deep emotionThe sunset thrilled her breast.
Dear maiden, look more gayly,This trick is old, thou'lt find.Before us sinks he daily,To rise again behind.
Words in this poem
- gayly adv.
- With mirth and frolic; merrily; blithely; gleefully.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Songs to Seraphine XI 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 XI, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/songs-to-seraphine-xi.html, id L15426.
Form and metre
Songs to Seraphine XI is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 ABAB oceanA · oppressedB · emotionA · breastB
- 2 ABAB gaylyA · findB · dailyA · behindB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| She stood beside the ocean, | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| And sighed as one oppressed, | 8 | ··˘··˘/˘ |
| With such a deep emotion | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| The sunset thrilled her breast. | 7 | ·/··˘·· |
| Dear maiden, look more gayly, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| This trick is old, thou'lt find. | 6 | ······ |
| Before us sinks he daily, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To rise again behind. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
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.