The Sphinx
This is the old enchanted wood,Sweet lime trees scent the wind;The glamor of the moon has castA spell upon my mind.
Onward I walk, and as I walk--Hark to that high, soft strain!That is the nightingale, she sings,Of love and of love's pain.
She sings of love and of love's pain,Of laughter and of tears.So plaintive her carol, so joyous her sobs,I dream of forgotten years.
Onward I walk, and as I walk,There stands before mine eyesA castle proud on an open lawn,Whose gables high uprise.
With casements closed, and everywhereSad silence in court and halls,It seemed as though mute death abodeWithin those barren walls.
Before the doorway crouched a sphinx,Half horror and half grace;With a lion's body, a lion's claws,And a woman's breast and face.
A woman fair! The marble glanceSpake wild desire and guile.The silent lips were proudly curledIn a confident, glad smile.
The nightingale, she sang so sweet,I yielded to her tone.I touched, I kissed the lovely face,And lo, I was undone!
The marble image stirred with life,The stone began to move;She drank my fiery kisses' glowWith panting thirsty love.
She well nigh drank my breath away;And, lustful still for more,Embraced me, and my shrinking fleshWith lion claws she tore.
Oh, rapturous martyrdom! ravishing pain!Oh, infinite anguish and bliss!With her horrible talons she wounded me,While she thrilled my soul with a kiss.
The nightingale sang: "Oh beautiful sphinx.Oh love! what meaneth this?That thou minglest still the pangs of deathWith thy most peculiar bliss?
Thou beautiful Sphinx, oh solve for meThis riddle of joy and tears!I have pondered it over again and again,How many thousand years!"
Words in this poem
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- carol v. t.
- To praise or celebrate in song.
- uprise v. i.
- To rise; to get up; to appear from below the horizon.
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- doorway n.
- The passage of a door; entrance way into a house or a room.
- crouched a.
- Marked with the sign of the cross. Crouched friar. See Crutched friar, under Crutched.
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- tore n.
- The dead grass that remains on mowing land in winter and spring. Mortimer. [Probably from the root of tear; cf. W. tór a break, cut, tóri to break, cut.]
- martyrdom n.
- The condition of a martyr; the death of a martyr; the suffering of death on account of adherence to the Christian faith, or to any cause. [Martyr + -dom.]
- ravishing a.
- Rapturous; transporting.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sphinx 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, The Sphinx, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/the-sphinx.html, id L15313.
Form and metre
The Sphinx is 52 lines in 13 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% 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 wood · windA · cast · mindA
- 2 -A-A walk · strainA · sings · painA
- 3 -A-A pain · tearsA · sobs · yearsA
- 4 -A-A walk · eyesA · lawn · upriseA
- 5 -A-A everywhere · hallsA · abode · wallsA
- 6 -A-A sphinx · graceA · claws · faceA
- 7 -A-A glance · guileA · curled · smileA
- 9 -A-A life · moveA · glow · loveA
- 10 -A-A away · moreA · flesh · toreA
- 11 -A-A pain · blissA · me · kissA
- 12 -A-A sphinx · thisA · death · blissA
- 13 -A-A me · tearsA · again · yearsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This is the old enchanted wood, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Sweet lime trees scent the wind; | 6 | ······ |
| The glamor of the moon has cast | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A spell upon my mind. | 6 | ······ |
| Onward I walk, and as I walk-- | 8 | /˘······ |
| Hark to that high, soft strain! | 6 | ······ |
| That is the nightingale, she sings, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Of love and of love's pain. | 6 | ······ |
| She sings of love and of love's pain, | 8 | ········ |
| Of laughter and of tears. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| So plaintive her carol, so joyous her sobs, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| I dream of forgotten years. | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Onward I walk, and as I walk, | 8 | /˘······ |
| There stands before mine eyes | 6 | ······ |
| A castle proud on an open lawn, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Whose gables high uprise. | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| With casements closed, and everywhere | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Sad silence in court and halls, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| It seemed as though mute death abode | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Within those barren walls. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Before the doorway crouched a sphinx, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Half horror and half grace; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| With a lion's body, a lion's claws, | 10 | ··/˘/˘·/˘· |
| And a woman's breast and face. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| A woman fair! The marble glance | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Spake wild desire and guile. | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
| The silent lips were proudly curled | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In a confident, glad smile. | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| The nightingale, she sang so sweet, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| I yielded to her tone. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I touched, I kissed the lovely face, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And lo, I was undone! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The marble image stirred with life, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The stone began to move; | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| She drank my fiery kisses' glow | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| With panting thirsty love. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| She well nigh drank my breath away; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And, lustful still for more, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Embraced me, and my shrinking flesh | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| With lion claws she tore. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Oh, rapturous martyrdom! ravishing pain! | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Oh, infinite anguish and bliss! | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘·· |
| With her horrible talons she wounded me, | 10 | ··/˘/˘·/˘· |
| While she thrilled my soul with a kiss. | 8 | ········ |
| The nightingale sang: "Oh beautiful sphinx. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Oh love! what meaneth this? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That thou minglest still the pangs of death | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| With thy most peculiar bliss? | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Thou beautiful Sphinx, oh solve for me | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| This riddle of joy and tears! | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| I have pondered it over again and again, | 11 | ··/˘··˘/·˘/ |
| How many thousand years!" | 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.