Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Paul Verlaine

Il pleut doucement sur la ville.—ARTHUR RIMBAUD


It weeps in my heart
As it rains on the town.
What is this dull smart
Possessing my heart?

Soft sound of the rain
On the ground and the roofs!
To a heart in pain,
O the song of the rain!

It weeps without cause
In my heart-sick heart.
In her faith, what? no flaws?
This grief has no cause.

’Tis sure the worst woe
To know not wherefore
My heart suffers so
Without joy or woe.

Translated by Gertrude Hall

Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Poems of Paul Verlaine

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Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

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