Landfall
And that was Olaf Trygvason,Going o'er the North Sea grim,Straight for his home and kingdom steering,Where none awaited him.Now the first mountains tower;Are they walls, on the ocean that lower?
And that was Olaf Trygvason,Fast the land seemed locked at first,All of his youthful, kingly longingsDoomed on the cliffs to burst,--Until a skald discoveredShining domes in the cloud-mists, that hovered.
And that was Olaf Trygvason,Seemed to see before his eyesMottled and gray some timeless templeLifting white domes to the skies.Sorely he longed to win it,Stand and hallow his young faith within it.
Words in this poem
- timeless a.
- Done at an improper time; unseasonable; untimely.
- sorely adv.
- In a sore manner; grievously; painfully; as, to be sorely afflicted.
- hallow v. t.
- To make holy; to set apart for holy or religious use; to consecrate; to treat or keep as sacred; to reverence. [OE. halowen, halwien, halgien, AS. halgian, fr. halig holy. See Holy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Landfall is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, the Arthur Hubbell Palmer 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: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Landfall, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/landfall.html, id L29319.
Form and metre
Landfall is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
See other poems in trochaic 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-- trygvason · grimA · steering · himA · tower · lower
- 2 -A-ABB trygvason · firstA · longings · burstA · discoveredB · hoveredB
- 3 -A-ABB trygvason · eyesA · temple · skiesA · itB · itB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| And that was Olaf Trygvason, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Going o'er the North Sea grim, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Straight for his home and kingdom steering, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Where none awaited him. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Now the first mountains tower; | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Are they walls, on the ocean that lower? | 9 | ·····/·/˘ |
| And that was Olaf Trygvason, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Fast the land seemed locked at first, | 8 | ····˘··· |
| All of his youthful, kingly longings | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Doomed on the cliffs to burst,-- | 7 | ·˘····· |
| Until a skald discovered | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Shining domes in the cloud-mists, that hovered. | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
| And that was Olaf Trygvason, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Seemed to see before his eyes | 8 | ·˘······ |
| Mottled and gray some timeless temple | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| Lifting white domes to the skies. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Sorely he longed to win it, | 8 | /˘··˘··· |
| Stand and hallow his young faith within it. | 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.