The Piano-Organ
My student-lamp is lighted,The books and papers are spread;A sound comes floating upwards,Chasing the thoughts from my head.
I open the garret window,Let the music in and the moon;See the woman grin for coppers,While the man grinds out the tune.
Grind me a dirge or a requiem,Or a funeral-march sad and slow,But not, O not, that waltz tuneI heard so long ago.
I stand upright by the window,The moonlight streams in wan:--O God! with its changeless rise and fallThe tune twirls on and on.
Words in this poem
- garret n.
- A turret; a watchtower. [OE. garite, garette, watchtower, place of lookout, OF. garite, also meaning, a place of refuge, F. guérite a place of refuge, donjon, sentinel box, fr. OF. gari]
- grin n.
- A snare; a gin. [AS. grin.]
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
- requiem n.
- A mass said or sung for the repose of a departed soul. [Acc. of L. requies rest, the first words of the Mass being "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine," give eternal rest to them, O lord; pref. re- re + quies quiet. S]
- waltz n.
- A dance performed by two persons in circular figures with a whirling motion; also, a piece of music composed in triple measure for this kind of dance. [G. walzer, from walzen to roll, revolve, dance, OHG. walzan to roll; akin to AS. wealtan. See Welter.]
- changeless a.
- That can not be changed; constant; as, a changeless purpose.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Piano-Organ is in the public domain. This text is taken from A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #56974; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Amy Levy, The Piano-Organ, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/the-piano-organ.html, id L21529.
Form and metre
The Piano-Organ is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in common measure.
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-A lightedA · spreadA · upwards · headA
- 2 -A-A window · moonA · coppers · tuneA
- 3 -A-A requiem · slowA · tune · agoA
- 4 -A-A window · wanA · fall · onA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| My student-lamp is lighted, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| The books and papers are spread; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| A sound comes floating upwards, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Chasing the thoughts from my head. | 7 | /˘····· |
| I open the garret window, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Let the music in and the moon; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| See the woman grin for coppers, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| While the man grinds out the tune. | 7 | ······· |
| Grind me a dirge or a requiem, | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| Or a funeral-march sad and slow, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| But not, O not, that waltz tune | 7 | ······· |
| I heard so long ago. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| I stand upright by the window, | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| The moonlight streams in wan:-- | 6 | ·/···· |
| O God! with its changeless rise and fall | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| The tune twirls on and on. | 6 | ······ |
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.