To Angelique VII
When I, enraptured by precious kisses,Rest in thine arms for briefest season,Of Germany thou must not ask me,I cannot bear it--there is a reason!
Leave Germany in peace, I do beseech thee,Vex not with endless questions my poor spiritConcerning home, friends, social, kind relations,There is a reason why I cannot bear it.
The oak-tree there is green, the German womenHave soft blue eyes--tender they are and fair.They whisper sighs of hope and truth and passion.I have good cause--'tis more than I can bear.
About this text
To Angelique VII 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 VII, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/to-angelique-vii.html, id L15438.
Form and metre
To Angelique VII is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 kisses · seasonA · me · reasonA
- 2 -A-A thee · spiritA · relations · itA
- 3 -A-A women · fairA · passion · bearA
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When I, enraptured by precious kisses, | 11 | ··˘/˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| Rest in thine arms for briefest season, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Of Germany thou must not ask me, | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| I cannot bear it--there is a reason! | 10 | ·˘/·····/˘ |
| Leave Germany in peace, I do beseech thee, | 11 | ·/˘˘····˘/· |
| Vex not with endless questions my poor spirit | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Concerning home, friends, social, kind relations, | 11 | ˘/˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| There is a reason why I cannot bear it. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| The oak-tree there is green, the German women | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Have soft blue eyes--tender they are and fair. | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| They whisper sighs of hope and truth and passion. | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| I have good cause--'tis more than I can bear. | 10 | ·········· |
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.