To Angelique X
This mad carnival of loving,This our heart's intoxicationEnds at last, and we twain, sobered,Yawningly look each on each.
All the luscious cup is drainedThat was filled with sensuous juices,Foaming to the brim, enticing,All the luscious cup is drained.
And the violins are silent,That so sweetly played for dancing,For the giddy dance of passion--Yes, the violins are silent.
And the lanterns are extinguished,That with gorgeous light illuminedAll the motley troop of maskers--Yes, the lanterns are extinguished.
And to-morrow comes Ash-Wednesday,I will draw upon thy foreheadThen an ashen cross, and murmur,Woman, thou art dust--remember!
Words in this poem
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- yawningly adv.
- In a yawning manner.
- luscious a.
- Sweet; delicious; very grateful to the taste; toothsome; excessively sweet or rich. [Prob. for lustious, fr. lusty, or perh. a corruption of luxurious. Cf. Lush, Lusty.]
- sensuous a.
- Of or pertaining to the senses, or sensible objects; addressing the senses; suggesting pictures or images of sense.
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- ashen a.
- Of or pertaining to the ash tree. [See Ash, the tree.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Angelique X 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 X, in Poems and Ballads (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #31726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/heine-poems-ballads/to-angelique-x.html, id L15441.
Form and metre
To Angelique X is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 19 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% 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.
- 2 A--A drainedA · juices · enticing · drainedA
- 3 A--A silentA · dancing · passion · silentA
- 4 A--A extinguishedA · illumined · maskers · extinguishedA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This mad carnival of loving, | 8 | ··/˘˘·/˘ |
| This our heart's intoxication | 9 | ·/˘·˘·˘/˘ |
| Ends at last, and we twain, sobered, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Yawningly look each on each. | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| All the luscious cup is drained | 8 | ··/˘···˘ |
| That was filled with sensuous juices, | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| Foaming to the brim, enticing, | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| All the luscious cup is drained. | 8 | ··/˘···˘ |
| And the violins are silent, | 8 | ··˘˘/·/˘ |
| That so sweetly played for dancing, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| For the giddy dance of passion-- | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Yes, the violins are silent. | 8 | ··˘˘/·/˘ |
| And the lanterns are extinguished, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| That with gorgeous light illumined | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| All the motley troop of maskers-- | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Yes, the lanterns are extinguished. | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| And to-morrow comes Ash-Wednesday, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| I will draw upon thy forehead | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Then an ashen cross, and murmur, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Woman, thou art dust--remember! | 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.