Birds in the Night V
I see you still. I softly pushed the door--As one o'erwhelmed with weariness you lay;But O light body love should soon restore,You bounded up, tearful at once and gay.
O what embraces, kisses sweet and wild!Myself, from brimming eyes I laughed to youThose moments, among all, O lovely child,Shall be my saddest, but my sweetest, too.
I will remember your smile, your caress,Your eyes, so kind that day,--exquisite snare!--Yourself, in fine, whom else I might not bless,Only as they appeared, not as they were.
Words in this poem
- tearful a.
- Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as, tearful eyes.
- brimming a.
- Full to the brim; overflowing.
- 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,]
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Birds in the Night V 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, Birds in the Night V, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8426, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/verlaine-poems/birds-in-the-night-v.html, id L15497.
Form and metre
Birds in the Night V is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 8% 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 ABAB doorA · layB · restoreA · gayB
- 2 ABAB wildA · youB · childA · tooB
- 3 A-A- caressA · snare · blessA · were
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I see you still. I softly pushed the door-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As one o'erwhelmed with weariness you lay; | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| But O light body love should soon restore, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| You bounded up, tearful at once and gay. | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| O what embraces, kisses sweet and wild! | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Myself, from brimming eyes I laughed to you | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| Those moments, among all, O lovely child, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Shall be my saddest, but my sweetest, too. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I will remember your smile, your caress, | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Your eyes, so kind that day,--exquisite snare!-- | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| Yourself, in fine, whom else I might not bless, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Only as they appeared, not as they were. | 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.