A Une Femme
To you these lines for the consoling graceOf your great eyes wherein a soft dream shines,For your pure soul, all-kind!--to you these linesFrom the black deeps of mine unmatched distress.
'Tis that the hideous dream that doth oppressMy soul, alas! its sad prey ne'er resigns,But like a pack of wolves down mad inclinesGoes gathering heat upon my reddened trace!
I suffer, oh, I suffer cruelly!So that the first man's cry at Eden lostWas but an eclogue surely to my cry!
And that the sorrows, Dear, that may have crossedYour life, are but as swallows light that fly--Dear!--in a golden warm September sky.
Words in this poem
- consoling a.
- Adapted to console or comfort; cheering; as, this is consoling news.
- eden n.
- The garden where Adam and Eve first dwelt; hence, a delightful region or residence. [Heb. eden delight, pleasure; also, a place of pleasure, Eden.]
- eclogue n.
- A pastoral poem, in which shepherds are introduced conversing with each other; a bucolic; an idyl; as, the Ecloques of Virgil, from which the modern usage of the word has been established. [L. ecloga, Gr. égloque, écloque. See Ex-, and Legend.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Une Femme is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8426, the Gertrude Hall translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Verlaine, A Une Femme, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8426, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/verlaine-poems/a-une-femme.html, id L15521.
Form and metre
A Une Femme is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% 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 -AAB grace · shinesA · linesA · distressB
- 2 BAA- oppressB · resignsA · inclinesA · trace
- 3 -CD cruelly · lostC · cryD
- 4 CDD crossedC · flyD · skyD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To you these lines for the consoling grace | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Of your great eyes wherein a soft dream shines, | 10 | ·········· |
| For your pure soul, all-kind!--to you these lines | 10 | ·········· |
| From the black deeps of mine unmatched distress. | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| 'Tis that the hideous dream that doth oppress | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| My soul, alas! its sad prey ne'er resigns, | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| But like a pack of wolves down mad inclines | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Goes gathering heat upon my reddened trace! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| I suffer, oh, I suffer cruelly! | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| So that the first man's cry at Eden lost | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Was but an eclogue surely to my cry! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And that the sorrows, Dear, that may have crossed | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Your life, are but as swallows light that fly | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| --Dear!--in a golden warm September sky. | 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.