Sin, Death
Sin and Death, those sisters two,Two, two,Sat together while dawned the morning.Sister, marry! Your house will do,Do, do,For me, too, was Death's warning.
Sin was wedded, and Death was pleased,Pleased, pleased,Danced about them the day they married;Night came on, she the bridegroom seized,Seized, seized,And away with her carried.
Sin soon wakened alone to weep,Weep, weep.Death sat near in the dawn of morning:Him you love, I love too and keep,Keep, keep.He is here, was Death's warning.
Words in this poem
- wedded a.
- Joined in wedlock; married.
- bridegroom n.
- A man newly married, or just about to be married. [OE. bridegome, brudgume, AS. br (akin to OS. br, D. bruidegom, bruigom, OHG. pr, MHG. briutegome, G. bräutigam); AS. br bride + guma man, akin to Goth. guma, Ic]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sin, Death 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, Sin, Death, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/sin-death.html, id L29269.
Form and metre
Sin, Death is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABAAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
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 AABAAB twoA · twoA · morningB · doA · doA · warningB
- 2 AABAAB pleasedA · pleasedA · marriedB · seizedA · seizedA · carriedB
- 3 AABAAB weepA · weepA · morningB · keepA · keepA · warningB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sin and Death, those sisters two, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Two, two, | 2 | ·· |
| Sat together while dawned the morning. | 9 | ·˘/˘···/˘ |
| Sister, marry! Your house will do, | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| Do, do, | 2 | ·· |
| For me, too, was Death's warning. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Sin was wedded, and Death was pleased, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Pleased, pleased, | 2 | ·· |
| Danced about them the day they married; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Night came on, she the bridegroom seized, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Seized, seized, | 2 | ·· |
| And away with her carried. | 7 | ·˘/··/˘ |
| Sin soon wakened alone to weep, | 8 | ··/˘˘/·· |
| Weep, weep. | 2 | ·· |
| Death sat near in the dawn of morning: | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Him you love, I love too and keep, | 8 | ········ |
| Keep, keep. | 2 | ·· |
| He is here, was Death's warning. | 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.