The Sky-Blue Smiles Above the Roof
The sky-blue smiles above the roofIts tenderest;A green tree rears above the roofIts waving crest.
The church-bell in the windless skyPeaceably rings,A skylark soaring in the skyEndlessly sings.
My God, my God, all life is there,Simple and sweet;The soothing bee-hive murmur thereComes from the street!
What have you done, O you that weepIn the glad sun,--Say, with your youth, you man that weep,What have you done?
Words in this poem
- windless a.
- Having no wind; calm.
- skylark n.
- A lark that mounts and sings as it files, especially the common species (Alauda arvensis) found in Europe and in some parts of Asia, and celebrated for its melodious song; -- called also sky laverock.
- endlessly adv.
- In an endless manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sky-Blue Smiles Above the Roof 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, The Sky-Blue Smiles Above the Roof, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8426, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/verlaine-poems/the-sky-blue-smiles-above-the-roof.html, id L15510.
Form and metre
The Sky-Blue Smiles Above the Roof is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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 ABAB roofA · tenderestB · roofA · crestB
- 2 ABAB skyA · ringsB · skyA · singsB
- 3 ABAB thereA · sweetB · thereA · streetB
- 4 ABAB weepA · sunB · weepA · doneB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The sky-blue smiles above the roof | 8 | ········ |
| Its tenderest; | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| A green tree rears above the roof | 8 | ········ |
| Its waving crest. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The church-bell in the windless sky | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Peaceably rings, | 4 | /˘˘· |
| A skylark soaring in the sky | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| Endlessly sings. | 4 | /˘˘· |
| My God, my God, all life is there, | 8 | ········ |
| Simple and sweet; | 4 | /˘·· |
| The soothing bee-hive murmur there | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Comes from the street! | 4 | ···· |
| What have you done, O you that weep | 8 | ········ |
| In the glad sun,-- | 4 | ···· |
| Say, with your youth, you man that weep, | 8 | ········ |
| What have you done? | 4 | ···· |
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.