Lover's Song
My soul unto thy heart is given,In mystic fold do they entwine,So bound in one that, were they riven,Apart my soul would life resign.Thou art my song and I the lyre;Thou art the breeze and I the brier;The altar I, and thou the fire;Mine the deep love, the beauty thine!As fleets away the rapid hourWhile weeping--mayMy sorrowing layTouch thee, sweet flower.
Words in this poem
- entwine v. t.
- To twine, twist, or wreathe together or round. [Pref. en- + twine. Cf. Intwine.]
- brier n.
- A plant with a slender woody stem bearing stout prickles; especially, species of Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax. [OE. brere, brer, AS. brer, brær; cf. Ir. briar prickle, thorn, brier, pin, Gael. preas bush, brier, W. prys, prysg.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lover's Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, the various hands translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Victor Hugo, Lover's Song, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/lover-s-song.html, id L26864.
Form and metre
Lover's Song is 12 lines in a single stanza. 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 ABABC-CBDEED givenA · entwineB · rivenA · resignB · lyreC · brier · fireC · thineB · hourD · mayE · layE · flowerD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My soul unto thy heart is given, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| In mystic fold do they entwine, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| So bound in one that, were they riven, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Apart my soul would life resign. | 8 | ˘/····˘/ |
| Thou art my song and I the lyre; | 8 | ········ |
| Thou art the breeze and I the brier; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The altar I, and thou the fire; | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Mine the deep love, the beauty thine! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As fleets away the rapid hour | 9 | ··˘/·/˘/˘ |
| While weeping--may | 4 | ·/˘· |
| My sorrowing lay | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Touch thee, sweet flower. | 5 | ···/˘ |
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.