Songs to the Dark Virgin
WouldThat I were a jewel,A shattered jewel,That all my shining brilliantsMight fall at thy feet,Thou dark one.
WouldThat I were a garment,A shimmering, silken garment,That all my foldsMight wrap about thy body,Absorb thy body,Hold and hide thy body,Thou dark one.
WouldThat I were a flame,But one sharp, leaping flameTo annihilate thy body,Thou dark one.
Words in this poem
- shimmering n.
- A gleam or glimmering.
- annihilate v. t.
- To reduce to nothing or nonexistence; to destroy the existence of; to cause to cease to be. [L. annihilare; ad + nihilum, nihil, nothing, ne hilum (filum) not a thread, nothing at all. Cf. File, a row.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Songs to the Dark Virgin is in the public domain. This text is taken from The weary blues, Project Gutenberg ebook #74745; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Langston Hughes, Songs to the Dark Virgin, in The Weary Blues (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #74745, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hughes-weary-blues/songs-to-the-dark-virgin.html, id L01518.
Form and metre
Songs to the Dark Virgin is 19 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.7 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 32% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -AA--- would · jewelA · jewelA · brilliants · feet · one
- 2 -AA-BBB- would · garmentA · garmentA · folds · bodyB · bodyB · bodyB · one
- 3 -AA-- would · flameA · flameA · body · one
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Would | 1 | · |
| That I were a jewel, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| A shattered jewel, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| That all my shining brilliants | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Might fall at thy feet, | 5 | ····· |
| Thou dark one. | 3 | ··· |
| Would | 1 | · |
| That I were a garment, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| A shimmering, silken garment, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| That all my folds | 4 | ···· |
| Might wrap about thy body, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Absorb thy body, | 5 | ˘/·/˘ |
| Hold and hide thy body, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Thou dark one. | 3 | ··· |
| Would | 1 | · |
| That I were a flame, | 5 | ····· |
| But one sharp, leaping flame | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To annihilate thy body, | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
| Thou dark one. | 3 | ··· |
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.