Music
DOWN the quiet eve,Thro’ my window with the sunsetPipes to me a distant organFoolish ditties;
And, as when you changePictures in a magic lantern,Books, beds, bottles, floor, and ceilingFade and vanish,
And I’m well once more . . .August flares adust and torrid,But my heart is full of AprilSap and sweetness.
In the quiet eveI am loitering, longing, dreaming . . .Dreaming, and a distant organPipes me ditties.
I can see the shop,I can smell the sprinkled pavement,Where she serves—her chestnut chignonThrills my senses!
O, the sight and scent,Wistful eve and perfumed pavement!In the distance pipes an organ . . .The sensation
Comes to me anew,And my spirit for a momentThro’ the music breathes the blessèdAirs of London.
Words in this poem
- adust a.
- Inflamed or scorched; fiery. [L. adustus, p. p. of adurere: cf. F. aduste.]
- chignon n.
- A knot, boss, or mass of hair, natural or artificial, worn by a woman at the back of the head. [F., prop. equiv. to chaînon link, fr. chaîne chain, fr. L. catena Cf. Chain.]
- wistful a.
- Longing; wishful; desirous. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly (from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See Wish.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Music is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, Music, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/music.html, id L12344.
Form and metre
Music is 28 lines in 7 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.2 syllables. 19 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 39% 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.
- 6 AA-- scentA · pavementA · organ · sensation
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 |
|---|---|---|
| DOWN the quiet eve, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Thro’ my window with the sunset | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| Pipes to me a distant organ | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Foolish ditties; | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| And, as when you change | 5 | ····· |
| Pictures in a magic lantern, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Books, beds, bottles, floor, and ceiling | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Fade and vanish, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| And I’m well once more . . . | 5 | ····· |
| August flares adust and torrid, | 8 | /˘·˘/·/˘ |
| But my heart is full of April | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Sap and sweetness. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| In the quiet eve | 5 | ··/˘· |
| I am loitering, longing, dreaming . . . | 9 | ··/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| Dreaming, and a distant organ | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Pipes me ditties. | 4 | ··/˘ |
| I can see the shop, | 5 | ····· |
| I can smell the sprinkled pavement, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Where she serves—her chestnut chignon | 8 | ····/·/˘ |
| Thrills my senses! | 4 | ··/˘ |
| O, the sight and scent, | 5 | ····· |
| Wistful eve and perfumed pavement! | 8 | /˘··˘//˘ |
| In the distance pipes an organ . . . | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| The sensation | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| Comes to me anew, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| And my spirit for a moment | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Thro’ the music breathes the blessèd | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Airs of London. | 4 | ··/˘ |
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.