Song
Sweet in her green dell the flower of beauty slumbers,Lull’d by the faint breezes sighing through her hair;Sleeps she and hears not the melancholy numbersBreathed to my sad lute ’mid the lonely air.
Down from the high cliffs the rivulet is teemingTo wind round the willow banks that lure him from above:O that in tears, from my rocky prison streaming,I too could glide to the bower of my love!
Ah! where the woodbines with sleepy arms have wound her,Opes she her eyelids at the dream of my lay,Listening, like the dove, while the fountains echo round her,To her lost mate’s call in the forests far away.
Come then, my bird! For the peace thou ever bearest,Still Heaven’s messenger of comfort to me--Come--this fond bosom, O faithfullest and fairest,Bleeds with its death-wound, its wound of love for thee!
Words in this poem
- dell n.
- A small, retired valley; a ravine. [AS. del, akin to E. dale; cf. D. delle, del, low ground. See Dale.]
- teeming a.
- Prolific; productive.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George Darley, Song, in Poems (1795–1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-george-darley/song.html, id L16196.
Form and metre
Song is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.8 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 ABAB slumbersA · hairB · numbersA · airB
- 2 ABAB teemingA · aboveB · streamingA · loveB
- 3 ABAB herA · layB · herA · awayB
- 4 ABAB bearestA · meB · fairestA · theeB
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet in her green dell the flower of beauty slumbers, | 13 | ······/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Lull’d by the faint breezes sighing through her hair; | 11 | ····/˘/˘··· |
| Sleeps she and hears not the melancholy numbers | 12 | ······/˘·˘/˘ |
| Breathed to my sad lute ’mid the lonely air. | 11 | ·˘······/˘· |
| Down from the high cliffs the rivulet is teeming | 12 | ······/˘˘·/˘ |
| To wind round the willow banks that lure him from above: | 13 | ····/········ |
| O that in tears, from my rocky prison streaming, | 12 | ······/˘/˘/˘ |
| I too could glide to the bower of my love! | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Ah! where the woodbines with sleepy arms have wound her, | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| Opes she her eyelids at the dream of my lay, | 11 | ···/······· |
| Listening, like the dove, while the fountains echo round her, | 13 | /˘·····/˘/˘·· |
| To her lost mate’s call in the forests far away. | 12 | ·······/˘·˘/ |
| Come then, my bird! For the peace thou ever bearest, | 12 | ········/˘/˘ |
| Still Heaven’s messenger of comfort to me-- | 11 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘·· |
| Come--this fond bosom, O faithfullest and fairest, | 12 | ···/˘·/˘˘·/˘ |
| Bleeds with its death-wound, its wound of love for thee! | 11 | ··········· |
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.