Green
See, blossoms, branches, fruit, leaves I have brought,And then my heart that for you only sighs;With those white hands of yours, oh, tear it not,But let the poor gift prosper in your eyes.
The dew upon my hair is still undried,--The morning wind strikes chilly where it fell.Suffer my weariness here at your sideTo dream the hour that shall it quite dispel.
Allow my head, that rings and echoes stillWith your last kiss, to lie upon your breast,Till it recover from the stormy thrill,--And let me sleep a little, since you rest.
Words in this poem
- prosper v. t.
- To favor; to render successful. [F. prospérer v. i., or L. prosperare, v. i., or L. prosperare, v. t., fr. prosper or prosperus. See Prosperous.]
- 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,]
- dispel v. t.
- To drive away by scattering, or so to cause to vanish; to clear away; to banish; to dissipate; as, to dispel a cloud, vapors, cares, doubts, illusions. [L. dispellere; dis- + pellere to push, drive. See Pulse a beating.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Green 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, Green, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8426, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/verlaine-poems/green.html, id L15500.
Form and metre
Green 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 87%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 17% 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 -A-A brought · sighsA · not · eyesA
- 2 ABAB undriedA · fellB · sideA · dispelB
- 3 ABAB stillA · breastB · thrillA · restB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| See, blossoms, branches, fruit, leaves I have brought, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And then my heart that for you only sighs; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With those white hands of yours, oh, tear it not, | 10 | ·········· |
| But let the poor gift prosper in your eyes. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The dew upon my hair is still undried,-- | 9 | ········· |
| The morning wind strikes chilly where it fell. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Suffer my weariness here at your side | 10 | /˘·/˘˘···· |
| To dream the hour that shall it quite dispel. | 10 | ···/····˘/ |
| Allow my head, that rings and echoes still | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| With your last kiss, to lie upon your breast, | 10 | ·········· |
| Till it recover from the stormy thrill,-- | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| And let me sleep a little, since you rest. | 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.