The Princess
The princess looked down from her bower high,The youth blew his horn as he lingered thereby."Be quiet, O youth, will forever you blow?It hinders my thoughts, that would far away go,Now, when sets the sun."
The princess looked down from her bower high,The youth ceased his blowing, his horn he laid by."Why are you so quiet? Now more shall you blow,It lifts all my thoughts, that would far away go,Now, when sets the sun."
The princess looked down from her bower high,The youth blew again, as he lingered thereby.Then weeping, she whispered: "O God, let me knowThe name of this sorrow that burdens me so! --Now has set the sun."
Words in this poem
- princess n.
- A female prince; a woman having sovereign power, or the rank of a prince. [F. princesse. See Prince, and cf. Princesse.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Princess 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, The Princess, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/the-princess.html, id L29254.
Form and metre
The Princess is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic 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 AABB- highA · therebyA · blowB · goB · sun
- 2 AABB- highA · byA · blowB · goB · sun
- 3 AABB- highA · therebyA · knowB · soB · sun
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The princess looked down from her bower high, | 11 | ·/˘·˘···/˘· |
| The youth blew his horn as he lingered thereby. | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| "Be quiet, O youth, will forever you blow? | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘·· |
| It hinders my thoughts, that would far away go, | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/· |
| Now, when sets the sun." | 5 | ····· |
| The princess looked down from her bower high, | 11 | ·/˘·˘···/˘· |
| The youth ceased his blowing, his horn he laid by. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| "Why are you so quiet? Now more shall you blow, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| It lifts all my thoughts, that would far away go, | 11 | ········˘/· |
| Now, when sets the sun." | 5 | ····· |
| The princess looked down from her bower high, | 11 | ·/˘·˘···/˘· |
| The youth blew again, as he lingered thereby. | 11 | ···˘/··/˘·· |
| Then weeping, she whispered: "O God, let me know | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| The name of this sorrow that burdens me so! -- | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| Now has set the sun." | 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.