Marit's Song
"Dance!" called the fiddle,Its strings loudly giggled,The bailiff's man wriggledAhead for a spree."Hold!" shouted OlaAnd tripped him to tumbling,The bailiff's man humbling,To maidens' great glee.
"Hop!" said then Erik,His foot struck the ceiling,The beams rang their pealing,The walls gave a shriek."Stop!" said now Elling,And seizing him collared,He held him and hollered:"You still are too weak!"
"Hei!" said then Rasmus,Fair Randi embracing:"Be quick now in placingThe kiss that you know!"
"Nay!" answered Randi.A slapping she gave him,And from her she drave him:"Here take what I owe!"
Words in this poem
- ahead adv.
- In or to the front; in advance; onward. [Pref. a- + head.]
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- slapping a.
- Very large; monstrous; big.
- drave
- , old imp. of Drive.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Marit's Song 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, Marit's Song, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/marit-s-song.html, id L29245.
Form and metre
Marit's Song is 24 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 -AAB-CCB fiddle · giggledA · wriggledA · spreeB · ola · tumblingC · humblingC · gleeB
- 2 ABBA-CCA erikA · ceilingB · pealingB · shriekA · elling · collaredC · holleredC · weakA
- 3 -AA- rasmus · embracingA · placingA · know
- 4 -AA- randi · himA · himA · owe
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Dance!" called the fiddle, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Its strings loudly giggled, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| The bailiff's man wriggled | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Ahead for a spree. | 5 | ˘/··· |
| "Hold!" shouted Ola | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| And tripped him to tumbling, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The bailiff's man humbling, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| To maidens' great glee. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| "Hop!" said then Erik, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| His foot struck the ceiling, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The beams rang their pealing, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The walls gave a shriek. | 5 | ····· |
| "Stop!" said now Elling, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And seizing him collared, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| He held him and hollered: | 6 | ····/˘ |
| "You still are too weak!" | 5 | ····· |
| "Hei!" said then Rasmus, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Fair Randi embracing: | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| "Be quick now in placing | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The kiss that you know!" | 5 | ····· |
| "Nay!" answered Randi. | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| A slapping she gave him, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And from her she drave him: | 6 | ······ |
| "Here take what I owe!" | 5 | ····· |
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.