Per Bo
Once I knew a noble peasantFrom a line of men large-hearted.Light and strength were in his mind,Lifted like a peak clear-linedO'er the valley in spring sunshine,First to feel the morning's beam,First refreshed by cloud-born stream.
Wide the springtime spread its banner,Waving in his will illumined,Bright with promise, color-sound;Heritage of toil its ground.Round that mountain music floated,Songsters sweet of faith and hopeNestled on its tree-clad slope.
Sometime, sometime all the valleyLike him shall with light be flooded;Sometime all his faith and truthSunward grow in dewy youth,And the dreams he dreamt too earlyLive and make him leader beFor a race as true as he.
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- springtime n.
- The season of spring; springtide.
- heritage a.
- That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- sometime adv.
- At a past time indefinitely referred to; once; formerly.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- sunward adv.
- Toward the sun.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Per Bo 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, Per Bo, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/per-bo.html, id L29335.
Form and metre
Per Bo is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 --AA-BB peasant · hearted · mindA · linedA · sunshine · beamB · streamB
- 2 -AAA-BB banner · illuminedA · soundA · groundA · floated · hopeB · slopeB
- 3 --AA-BB valley · flooded · truthA · youthA · early · beB · heB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Once I knew a noble peasant | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| From a line of men large-hearted. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Light and strength were in his mind, | 7 | ······· |
| Lifted like a peak clear-lined | 8 | /˘·····˘ |
| O'er the valley in spring sunshine, | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| First to feel the morning's beam, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| First refreshed by cloud-born stream. | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| Wide the springtime spread its banner, | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| Waving in his will illumined, | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| Bright with promise, color-sound; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Heritage of toil its ground. | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| Round that mountain music floated, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Songsters sweet of faith and hope | 7 | ······· |
| Nestled on its tree-clad slope. | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| Sometime, sometime all the valley | 8 | /·/···/˘ |
| Like him shall with light be flooded; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Sometime all his faith and truth | 7 | /······ |
| Sunward grow in dewy youth, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| And the dreams he dreamt too early | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Live and make him leader be | 7 | ····/˘· |
| For a race as true as he. | 7 | ······· |
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.