Pierrot
Pierrot stands in the gardenBeneath a waning moon,And on his lute he fashionsA fragile silver tune.
Pierrot plays in the garden,He thinks he plays for me,But I am quite forgottenUnder the cherry tree.
Pierrot plays in the garden,And all the roses knowThat Pierrot loves his music,--But I love Pierrot.
Words in this poem
- waning n.
- The act or process of waning, or decreasing.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Pierrot is in the public domain. This text is taken from Love Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #442; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sara Teasdale, Pierrot, in Love Songs (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #442, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-love-songs/pierrot.html, id L08042.
Form and metre
Pierrot is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.4 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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-A gardenA · moonA · fashions · tuneA
- 2 -A-A garden · meA · forgotten · treeA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Pierrot stands in the garden | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Beneath a waning moon, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And on his lute he fashions | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| A fragile silver tune. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Pierrot plays in the garden, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| He thinks he plays for me, | 6 | ······ |
| But I am quite forgotten | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Under the cherry tree. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Pierrot plays in the garden, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And all the roses know | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That Pierrot loves his music,-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| But I love Pierrot. | 5 | ····· |
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.