Sing to Me, Gondolier!
Sing to me, Gondolier!Sing words from Tasso’s lay;While blue, and still, and clear,Night seems but softer day.The gale is gently falling,As if it paused to hearSome strain the past recalling--Sing to me, Gondolier!
“Oh, ask me not to wakeThe memory of the brave;Bid no high numbers breakThe silence of the wave.Gone are the noble-hearted,Closed the bright pageants here;And the glad song is departedFrom the mournful Gondolier!”
Words in this poem
- gondolier n.
- A man who rows a gondola. [It. gondoliere: cf. F. gondolier.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sing to Me, Gondolier! is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, Sing to Me, Gondolier!, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/sing-to-me-gondolier.html, id L19693.
Form and metre
Sing to Me, Gondolier! is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-A-A gondolierA · layB · clearA · dayB · falling · hearA · recalling · gondolierA
- 2 ABABCDCD wakeA · braveB · breakA · waveB · heartedC · hereD · departedC · gondolierD
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sing to me, Gondolier! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Sing words from Tasso’s lay; | 6 | ···/·· |
| While blue, and still, and clear, | 6 | ······ |
| Night seems but softer day. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The gale is gently falling, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| As if it paused to hear | 6 | ······ |
| Some strain the past recalling-- | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Sing to me, Gondolier! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| “Oh, ask me not to wake | 6 | ······ |
| The memory of the brave; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Bid no high numbers break | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The silence of the wave. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Gone are the noble-hearted, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Closed the bright pageants here; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And the glad song is departed | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| From the mournful Gondolier!” | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
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.