Song
“Leave us not, leave us not!Say not adieu!Have we not been to theeTender and true?
“Take not thy sunny smileFar from our hearth!With that sweet light will fadeSummer and mirth.
“Leave us not, leave us not!Can thy heart roam?Wilt thou not pine to hearVoices from home?
“Too sad our love would beIf thou wert gone!Turn to us, leave us not!Thou art our own!”
“O sister! hush that thrilling lute!--oh, cease that haunting lay!Too deeply pierce those wild, sweet notes--yet, yet I cannot stay:For weary, weary is my heart! I hear a whisper’d callIn every breeze that stirs the leaf and bids the blossom fall.I cannot breathe in freedom here, my spirit pines to dwellWhere the world’s voice can reach no more! Oh, calm thee!--Fare theewell!”
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- thrilling a.
- Causing a thrill; causing tremulous excitement; deeply moving; as, a thrilling romance.
- 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]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song 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, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/song.html, id L19658.
Form and metre
Song is 23 lines in 5 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 not · adieuA · thee · trueA
- 3 -A-A not · roamA · hear · homeA
- 5 AABBC-C layA · stayA · callB · fallB · dwellC · thee · wellC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “Leave us not, leave us not! | 6 | ······ |
| Say not adieu! | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Have we not been to thee | 6 | ······ |
| Tender and true? | 4 | /˘·· |
| “Take not thy sunny smile | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Far from our hearth! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| With that sweet light will fade | 6 | ······ |
| Summer and mirth. | 4 | /˘·· |
| “Leave us not, leave us not! | 6 | ······ |
| Can thy heart roam? | 4 | ···· |
| Wilt thou not pine to hear | 6 | ······ |
| Voices from home? | 4 | /˘·· |
| “Too sad our love would be | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| If thou wert gone! | 4 | ···· |
| Turn to us, leave us not! | 6 | ······ |
| Thou art our own!” | 5 | ··/˘· |
| “O sister! hush that thrilling lute!--oh, cease that haunting lay! | 14 | ·/˘··/˘····/˘· |
| Too deeply pierce those wild, sweet notes--yet, yet I cannot stay: | 14 | ·/˘········/˘· |
| For weary, weary is my heart! I hear a whisper’d call | 14 | ·/˘/˘······/˘· |
| In every breeze that stirs the leaf and bids the blossom fall. | 14 | ·/˘········/˘· |
| I cannot breathe in freedom here, my spirit pines to dwell | 13 | ·/˘··/˘··/··· |
| Where the world’s voice can reach no more! Oh, calm thee!--Fare thee | 13 | ············· |
| well!” | 1 | · |
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.