Post Festum
A man in coat of ice arrayedStood up once by the Arctic Ocean;The whole earth shook with proud emotionAnd honor to the giant paid.
A king came, to him climbing up,An Order in his one hand bearing:"Who great become, this sign are wearing."--The growling giant said but "Stop!"
The frightened king fell down again,Began to weep with features ashen:"My Order is in this rude fashionRefused by just the greatest men.
"My dear man, take it, 't is but fit,Of your king's honor be the warder;On your breast greater grows the Order,And we who bear it, too, by it."--
The Arctic giant was too good,--A foible oft ascribed to giants,Who foolish trust in little clients,--He took it,--while we mocking stood.
But all the kings crept to him then,And each his Order brought, to know itThereby renewed and greater, so itGave rank to needy noblemen.
Honi soit ... and all the rest;Soon Orders covered all his breast.But oh! they greater grew no tittle,And he grew so confounded little.
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- ashen a.
- Of or pertaining to the ash tree. [See Ash, the tree.]
- warder n.
- One who wards or keeps; a keeper; a guard.
- foible a.
- Weak; feeble. Lord Herbert. [OF. foible. See Feeble.]
- tittle n.
- A particle; a minute part; a jot; an iota. [OE. titel, titil, apparently a dim. of tit, in the sense of small; cf. G. tüttel a tittle, dim. of OHG. tutta teat. Perhaps, however, the same word as title, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Post Festum 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, Post Festum, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/post-festum.html, id L29340.
Form and metre
Post Festum is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABBA arrayedA · oceanB · emotionB · paidA
- 2 ABBA upA · bearingB · wearingB · stopA
- 3 ABBA againA · ashenB · fashionB · menA
- 4 ABBA fitA · warderB · orderB · itA
- 5 ABBA goodA · giantsB · clientsB · stoodA
- 6 ABBA thenA · itB · itB · noblemenA
- 7 AABB restA · breastA · tittleB · littleB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A man in coat of ice arrayed | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Stood up once by the Arctic Ocean; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| The whole earth shook with proud emotion | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| And honor to the giant paid. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A king came, to him climbing up, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| An Order in his one hand bearing: | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| "Who great become, this sign are wearing." | 9 | ··˘/···/˘ |
| --The growling giant said but "Stop!" | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The frightened king fell down again, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Began to weep with features ashen: | 9 | ˘/···/˘/˘ |
| "My Order is in this rude fashion | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Refused by just the greatest men. | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| "My dear man, take it, 't is but fit, | 9 | ········· |
| Of your king's honor be the warder; | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| On your breast greater grows the Order, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And we who bear it, too, by it."-- | 8 | ········ |
| The Arctic giant was too good,-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A foible oft ascribed to giants, | 9 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| Who foolish trust in little clients,-- | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| He took it,--while we mocking stood. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But all the kings crept to him then, | 8 | ········ |
| And each his Order brought, to know it | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Thereby renewed and greater, so it | 9 | ··˘/·/˘·· |
| Gave rank to needy noblemen. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Honi soit ... and all the rest; | 7 | ······· |
| Soon Orders covered all his breast. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| But oh! they greater grew no tittle, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And he grew so confounded little. | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
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.