Sonnet V
A tide of beauty with returning MayFloods the fair city; from warm pavements fumeOdors endeared; down avenues in bloomThe chestnut-trees with phallic spires are gay.Over the terrace flows the thronged cafe;The boulevards are streams of hurrying sound;And through the streets, like veins when they abound,The lust for pleasure throbs itself away.Here let me live, here let me still pursuePhantoms of bliss that beckon and recede, --Thy strange allurements, City that I love,Maze of romance, where I have followed tooThe dream Youth treasures of its dearest needAnd stars beyond thy towers bring tidings of.
Words in this poem
- fume n.
- Exhalation; volatile matter (esp. noxious vapor or smoke) ascending in a dense body; smoke; vapor; reek; as, the fumes of tobacco. [L. fumus; akin to Skr. dh smoke, dh to shake, fan a flame, cf. Gr. fum smoke, F. fumée. Cf. Dust, n., Femerell, Thyme.]
- phallic a.
- Of or pertaining to the phallus, or to phallism.
- cafe n.
- A coffeehouse; a restaurant; also, a room in a hotel or restaurant where coffee and liquors are served. [F. See Coffee.]
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- beckon v. t.
- To make a significant sign to; hence, to summon, as by a motion of the hand.
- maze n.
- A wild fancy; a confused notion. [OE. mase; cf. OE. masen to confuse, puzzle, Norweg. masast to fall into a slumber, masa to be continually busy, prate, chatter, Icel. masa to chatter, dial. Sw.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet V is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #617; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alan Seeger, Sonnet V, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/sonnet-v.html, id L12938.
Form and metre
Sonnet V is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAACCADEFDEF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAACCADEFDEF mayA · fumeB · bloomB · gayA · cafeA · soundC · aboundC · awayA · pursueD · recedeE · loveF · tooD · needE · ofF
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A tide of beauty with returning May | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Floods the fair city; from warm pavements fume | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Odors endeared; down avenues in bloom | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘··· |
| The chestnut-trees with phallic spires are gay. | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| Over the terrace flows the thronged cafe; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The boulevards are streams of hurrying sound; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And through the streets, like veins when they abound, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The lust for pleasure throbs itself away. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Here let me live, here let me still pursue | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Phantoms of bliss that beckon and recede, -- | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| Thy strange allurements, City that I love, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Maze of romance, where I have followed too | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| The dream Youth treasures of its dearest need | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And stars beyond thy towers bring tidings of. | 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.