A Bird's Song of Love
Come to me, come, O come!Let me not die, but come!Hyria hysria nazazaTrillirivos.
Fair is thy face, O fair!Fair thine eyes, O how fair!Hyria hysria nazazaTrillirivos.
Fair is thy flowing hair!O fair, O fair, how fair!Hyria hysria nazazaTrillirivos.
Redder than rose art thou,Whiter than lily thou!Hyria hysria nazazaTrillirivos.
Fairer than all, I vow,Ever my pride art thou!Hyria hysria nazazaTrillirivos.
About this text
A Bird's Song of Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #18044; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Addington Symonds, A Bird's Song of Love, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/a-bird-s-song-of-love.html, id L11839.
Form and metre
A Bird's Song of Love is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.8 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 AA-- comeA · comeA · nazaza · trillirivos
- 2 AA-- fairA · fairA · nazaza · trillirivos
- 3 AA-- hairA · fairA · nazaza · trillirivos
- 4 AA-- thouA · thouA · nazaza · trillirivos
- 5 AA-- vowA · thouA · nazaza · trillirivos
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Come to me, come, O come! | 6 | ······ |
| Let me not die, but come! | 6 | ······ |
| Hyria hysria nazaza | 7 | ······· |
| Trillirivos. | 4 | ···· |
| Fair is thy face, O fair! | 6 | ······ |
| Fair thine eyes, O how fair! | 6 | ······ |
| Hyria hysria nazaza | 7 | ······· |
| Trillirivos. | 4 | ···· |
| Fair is thy flowing hair! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| O fair, O fair, how fair! | 6 | ······ |
| Hyria hysria nazaza | 7 | ······· |
| Trillirivos. | 4 | ···· |
| Redder than rose art thou, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Whiter than lily thou! | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Hyria hysria nazaza | 7 | ······· |
| Trillirivos. | 4 | ···· |
| Fairer than all, I vow, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Ever my pride art thou! | 6 | /˘···· |
| Hyria hysria nazaza | 7 | ······· |
| Trillirivos. | 4 | ···· |
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.