Gérard de Nerval: An Old Tune
THERE is an air for which I would disownMozart’s, Rossini’s, Weber’s melodies,—A sweet sad air that languishes and sighs,And keeps its secret charm for me alone.
Whene’er I hear that music vague and old,Two hundred years are mist that rolls away;The thirteenth Louis reigns, and I beholdA green land golden in the dying day.
An old red castle, strong with stony towers,The windows gay with many coloured glass;Wide plains, and rivers flowing among flowers,That bathe the castle basement as they pass.
In antique weed, with dark eyes and gold hair,A lady looks forth from her window high;It may be that I knew and found her fair,In some forgotten life, long time gone by.
Words in this poem
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gérard de Nerval: An Old Tune is in the public domain. This text is taken from Ballads and Lyrics of Old France, with Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #795, the Andrew Lang 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: Various, Gérard de Nerval: An Old Tune, in Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #795, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lang-old-france/an-old-tune.html, id L26910.
Form and metre
Gérard de Nerval: An Old Tune is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABBA disownA · melodiesB · sighsB · aloneA
- 2 ABAB oldA · awayB · beholdA · dayB
- 3 ABAB towersA · glassB · flowersA · passB
- 4 ABAB hairA · highB · fairA · byB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THERE is an air for which I would disown | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Mozart’s, Rossini’s, Weber’s melodies,— | 10 | /˘˘/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| A sweet sad air that languishes and sighs, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| And keeps its secret charm for me alone. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Whene’er I hear that music vague and old, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Two hundred years are mist that rolls away; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| The thirteenth Louis reigns, and I behold | 10 | ·///˘···˘/ |
| A green land golden in the dying day. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| An old red castle, strong with stony towers, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| The windows gay with many coloured glass; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Wide plains, and rivers flowing among flowers, | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| That bathe the castle basement as they pass. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| In antique weed, with dark eyes and gold hair, | 10 | ·˘/······· |
| A lady looks forth from her window high; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| It may be that I knew and found her fair, | 10 | ·········· |
| In some forgotten life, long time gone by. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
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.