Song (After the French of Rostand)
O, many a lover sighsBeneath the summer skiesFor black or hazel eyesAll day.No light of hope can marMy whiter brighter star;I love a Princess farAway.
Now you that haste to meetYour love's returning feetMust plead for every sweetCaress;But, day and night and day,Without a prayer to pray,I love my far awayPrincess.
Words in this poem
- princess n.
- A female prince; a woman having sovereign power, or the rank of a prince. [F. princesse. See Prince, and cf. Princesse.]
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song (After the French of Rostand) is in the public domain. This text is taken from Collected Poems: Volume One, Project Gutenberg ebook #30501; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Noyes, Song (After the French of Rostand), in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/song-after-the-french-of-rostand.html, id L21418.
Form and metre
Song (After the French of Rostand) is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AAABCCCB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 99%).
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 AAABCCCB sighsA · skiesA · eyesA · dayB · marC · starC · farC · awayB
- 2 AAABCCCB meetA · feetA · sweetA · caressB · dayC · prayC · awayC · princessB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O, many a lover sighs | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| Beneath the summer skies | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For black or hazel eyes | 6 | ···/˘· |
| All day. | 2 | ·· |
| No light of hope can mar | 6 | ······ |
| My whiter brighter star; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| I love a Princess far | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Away. | 2 | ˘/ |
| Now you that haste to meet | 6 | ······ |
| Your love's returning feet | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Must plead for every sweet | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Caress; | 2 | ˘/ |
| But, day and night and day, | 6 | ······ |
| Without a prayer to pray, | 6 | ······ |
| I love my far away | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Princess. | 2 | /˘ |
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.