Song for an Air by Hummel
Oh! if thou wilt not give thine heart,Give back my own to me;For if in thine I have no part,Why should mine dwell with thee?
Yet no! this mournful love of mineI will not from me cast;Let me but dream ’twill win me thineBy its deep truth at last!
Can aught so fond, so faithful, liveThrough years without reply?--Oh! if thy heart thou wilt not give,Give me a thought, a sigh!
The first verse of this song is a literal translation from theGerman.
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- twill v. i.
- To weave, as cloth, so as to produce the appearance of diagonal lines or ribs on the surface. [Scotch tweel; probably from LG. twillen to make double, from twi- two; akin to AS. twi-, E. twi- in twilight. See Twice, and cf. Tweed, Tweel.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song for an Air by Hummel 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, Song for an Air by Hummel, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/song-for-an-air-by-hummel.html, id L19544.
Form and metre
Song for an Air by Hummel is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
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 ABAB heartA · meB · partA · theeB
- 2 ABAB mineA · castB · thineA · lastB
- 3 ABAB liveA · replyB · giveA · sighB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! if thou wilt not give thine heart, | 8 | ········ |
| Give back my own to me; | 6 | ······ |
| For if in thine I have no part, | 8 | ········ |
| Why should mine dwell with thee? | 6 | ······ |
| Yet no! this mournful love of mine | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I will not from me cast; | 6 | ······ |
| Let me but dream ’twill win me thine | 8 | ········ |
| By its deep truth at last! | 6 | ······ |
| Can aught so fond, so faithful, live | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Through years without reply? | 6 | ····˘/ |
| --Oh! if thy heart thou wilt not give, | 8 | ········ |
| Give me a thought, a sigh! | 6 | ······ |
| The first verse of this song is a literal translation from the | 15 | ········/˘˘/˘·· |
| German. | 2 | /˘ |
Notes from the edition 1
Notes from The Poems of Felicia Hemans (Project Gutenberg #66785), largely Mrs Hemans's own.
- Stanza 1, line 4 The first verse of this song is a literal translation from the German.
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