Hussein
Alone,Ever since prayer-time, he doth wait,O vizier! without lying down,In the great window of the gate,Looking into the Registàn,Where through the sellers’ booths the slavesAre this way bringing the dead manO vizier, here is the king’s door!
About this text
Hussein is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #54985; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matthew Arnold, Hussein, in Poems (1849–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/arnold-poems/hussein-2.html, id L06965.
Form and metre
Hussein is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 25% 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 -A-A---- alone · waitA · down · gateA · registàn · slaves · man · door
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alone, | 2 | ˘/ |
| Ever since prayer-time, he doth wait, | 8 | /˘······ |
| O vizier! without lying down, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In the great window of the gate, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Looking into the Registàn, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Where through the sellers’ booths the slaves | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Are this way bringing the dead man | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O vizier, here is the king’s door! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.