To Angelique V
Ah, how fair thou art when franklyThou reveal'st thy soul's dimensions,And thy speech is overflowingWith the noblest of intentions.
When thou tell'st me how thy feelingsAlways have been truest, highest,To the pride within thy bosomThou no sacrifice denyest.
Not for millions, thou averrest,Man could thy pure honor buy,Ere thou sell thyself for moneyAh, thou wouldst far liefer die.
I before thee stand and listen;To the end I listen stoutly,Like a type of faith in silence,And I fold my hands devoutly.
Words in this poem
- frankly adv.
- In a frank manner; freely.
- stoutly adv.
- In a stout manner; lustily; boldly; obstinately; as, he stoutly defended himself.
- devoutly adv.
- In a devout and reverent manner; with devout emotions; piously.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Angelique V 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, To Angelique V, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/to-angelique-v.html, id L15436.
Form and metre
To Angelique V is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 14 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% 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.
- 3 -A-A averrest · buyA · money · dieA
- 4 -A-A listen · stoutlyA · silence · devoutlyA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ah, how fair thou art when frankly | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Thou reveal'st thy soul's dimensions, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| And thy speech is overflowing | 8 | ····/˘·˘ |
| With the noblest of intentions. | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| When thou tell'st me how thy feelings | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Always have been truest, highest, | 8 | /···/˘/˘ |
| To the pride within thy bosom | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Thou no sacrifice denyest. | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Not for millions, thou averrest, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘˘ |
| Man could thy pure honor buy, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Ere thou sell thyself for money | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| Ah, thou wouldst far liefer die. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| I before thee stand and listen; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| To the end I listen stoutly, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Like a type of faith in silence, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And I fold my hands devoutly. | 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.