Du Bellay: Hymn to the Winds
TO you, troop so fleet,That with winged wandering feet,Through the wide world pass,And with soft murmuringToss the green shades of springIn woods and grass,Lily and violetI give, and blossoms wet,Roses and dew;This branch of blushing roses,Whose fresh bud uncloses,Wind-flowers too.Ah, winnow with sweet breath,Winnow the holt and heath,Round this retreat;Where all the golden mornWe fan the gold o’ the corn,In the sun’s heat.
Words in this poem
- holt
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Hold, contr. from holdeth.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Du Bellay: Hymn to the Winds 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, Du Bellay: Hymn to the Winds, in Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #795, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lang-old-france/hymn-to-the-winds.html, id L26890.
Form and metre
Du Bellay: Hymn to the Winds is 18 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 AABCCBDDEFFE--AGGA fleetA · feetA · passB · murmuringC · springC · grassB · violetD · wetD · dewE · rosesF · unclosesF · tooE · breath · heath · retreatA · mornG · cornG · heatA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| TO you, troop so fleet, | 5 | ····· |
| That with winged wandering feet, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Through the wide world pass, | 5 | ····· |
| And with soft murmuring | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Toss the green shades of spring | 6 | ······ |
| In woods and grass, | 4 | ···· |
| Lily and violet | 6 | /˘·/˘˘ |
| I give, and blossoms wet, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Roses and dew; | 4 | /˘·· |
| This branch of blushing roses, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Whose fresh bud uncloses, | 6 | ······ |
| Wind-flowers too. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Ah, winnow with sweet breath, | 6 | ·/···· |
| Winnow the holt and heath, | 6 | /····· |
| Round this retreat; | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Where all the golden morn | 6 | ···/˘· |
| We fan the gold o’ the corn, | 7 | ······· |
| In the sun’s heat. | 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.