The Maiden's Lament
The clouds fast gather,The forest-oaks roar--A maiden is sittingBeside the green shore,--The billows are breaking with might, with might,And she sighs aloud in the darkling night,Her eyelid heavy with weeping.
"My heart's dead within me,The world is a void;To the wish it gives nothing,Each hope is destroyed.I have tasted the fulness of bliss belowI have lived, I have loved,--Thy child, oh take now,Thou Holy One, into Thy keeping!"
"In vain is thy sorrow,In vain thy tears fall,For the dead from their slumbersThey ne'er can recall;Yet if aught can pour comfort and balm in thy heart,Now that love its sweet pleasures no more can impart,Speak thy wish, and thou granted shalt find it!"
"Though in vain is my sorrow,Though in vain my tears fall,--Though the dead from their slumbersThey ne'er can recall,Yet no balm is so sweet to the desolate heart,When love its soft pleasures no more can impart,As the torments that love leaves behind it!"
Words in this poem
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- darkling a.
- Becoming dark or gloomy; frowing.
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Maiden's Lament is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Schiller — Third period, Project Gutenberg ebook #6796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Friedrich Schiller, The Maiden's Lament, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/the-maiden-s-lament.html, id L21829.
Form and metre
The Maiden's Lament is 28 lines in 4 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in anapaestic dimeter.
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 -A-ABB- gather · roarA · sitting · shoreA · mightB · nightB · weeping
- 2 -A-A--- me · voidA · nothing · destroyedA · below · now · keeping
- 3 -A-ABB- sorrow · fallA · slumbers · recallA · heartB · impartB · it
- 4 -A-ABB- sorrow · fallA · slumbers · recallA · heartB · impartB · it
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 anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The clouds fast gather, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The forest-oaks roar-- | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| A maiden is sitting | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Beside the green shore,-- | 5 | ˘/··· |
| The billows are breaking with might, with might, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| And she sighs aloud in the darkling night, | 10 | ···˘/··/˘· |
| Her eyelid heavy with weeping. | 8 | ·/·/˘·/˘ |
| "My heart's dead within me, | 6 | ······ |
| The world is a void; | 5 | ····· |
| To the wish it gives nothing, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Each hope is destroyed. | 5 | ···˘/ |
| I have tasted the fulness of bliss below | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| I have lived, I have loved,--Thy child, oh take now, | 11 | ··········· |
| Thou Holy One, into Thy keeping!" | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| "In vain is thy sorrow, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| In vain thy tears fall, | 5 | ····· |
| For the dead from their slumbers | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| They ne'er can recall; | 5 | ···/· |
| Yet if aught can pour comfort and balm in thy heart, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Now that love its sweet pleasures no more can impart, | 12 | ·····/˘···˘/ |
| Speak thy wish, and thou granted shalt find it!" | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| "Though in vain is my sorrow, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Though in vain my tears fall,-- | 6 | ······ |
| Though the dead from their slumbers | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| They ne'er can recall, | 5 | ···/· |
| Yet no balm is so sweet to the desolate heart, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| When love its soft pleasures no more can impart, | 11 | ····/˘···˘/ |
| As the torments that love leaves behind it!" | 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.