The Indian Serenade
I arise from dreams of theeIn the first sweet sleep of night,When the winds are breathing low,And the stars are shining bright:I arise from dreams of thee,And a spirit in my feetHath led me--who knows how?To thy chamber window, Sweet!
The wandering airs they faintOn the dark, the silent stream--The Champak odours failLike sweet thoughts in a dream;The nightingale's complaint,It dies upon her heart;--As I must on thine,Oh, beloved as thou art!
Oh lift me from the grass!I die! I faint! I fail!Let thy love in kisses rainOn my lips and eyelids pale.My cheek is cold and white, alas!My heart beats loud and fast;--Oh! press it to thine own again,Where it will break at last.
About this text
The Indian Serenade is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Indian Serenade, in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/the-indian-serenade.html, id L16359.
Form and metre
The Indian Serenade is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AB-BAC-C theeA · nightB · low · brightB · theeA · feetC · how · sweetC
- 2 AB-BAC-C faintA · streamB · fail · dreamB · complaintA · heartC · thine · artC
- 3 ABCBAACA grassA · failB · rainC · paleB · alasA · fastA · againC · lastA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I arise from dreams of thee | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| In the first sweet sleep of night, | 7 | ······· |
| When the winds are breathing low, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the stars are shining bright: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| I arise from dreams of thee, | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| And a spirit in my feet | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Hath led me--who knows how? | 6 | ······ |
| To thy chamber window, Sweet! | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| The wandering airs they faint | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| On the dark, the silent stream-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The Champak odours fail | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Like sweet thoughts in a dream; | 6 | ······ |
| The nightingale's complaint, | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| It dies upon her heart;-- | 6 | ······ |
| As I must on thine, | 5 | ····· |
| Oh, beloved as thou art! | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Oh lift me from the grass! | 6 | ······ |
| I die! I faint! I fail! | 6 | ······ |
| Let thy love in kisses rain | 7 | ····/˘· |
| On my lips and eyelids pale. | 7 | ····/·· |
| My cheek is cold and white, alas! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| My heart beats loud and fast;-- | 6 | ······ |
| Oh! press it to thine own again, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Where it will break at last. | 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.