Serenade
Hide, happy damask, from the stars,What sleep enfolds behind your veil,But open to the fairy carsOn which the dreams of midnight sail;And let the zephyrs rise and fallAbout her in the curtained gloom,And then return to tell me allThe silken secrets of the room.
Ah, dearest! may the elves that swayThy fancies come from emerald plots,Where they have dozed and dreamed all dayIn hearts of blue forget-me-nots.And one perhaps shall whisper thus:Awake! and light the darkness, Sweet!While thou art reveling with us,He watches in the lonely street.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Serenade is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Henry Timrod; with Memoir, Project Gutenberg ebook #845; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Timrod, Serenade, in Poems (1860–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #845, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/timrod-poems/serenade.html, id L10449.
Form and metre
Serenade is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 31% 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 ABABCDCD starsA · veilB · carsA · sailB · fallC · gloomD · allC · roomD
- 2 ABABCDCD swayA · plotsB · dayA · notsB · thusC · sweetD · usC · streetD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hide, happy damask, from the stars, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| What sleep enfolds behind your veil, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| But open to the fairy cars | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| On which the dreams of midnight sail; | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And let the zephyrs rise and fall | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| About her in the curtained gloom, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| And then return to tell me all | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The silken secrets of the room. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Ah, dearest! may the elves that sway | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Thy fancies come from emerald plots, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Where they have dozed and dreamed all day | 10 | ····˘··˘·· |
| In hearts of blue forget-me-nots. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And one perhaps shall whisper thus: | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Awake! and light the darkness, Sweet! | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| While thou art reveling with us, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| He watches in the lonely street. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
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.