The Tryst
Silent I'm biding,While softly glidingSink the still hours to eternity's sleep.My fancies roamingList in the gloaming:--Will she the trysting now keep?
Winter is dreaming,Bright stars are beaming,Smiling their light through its cloud-veil they pour,Summer foretellingSweet love compelling;--Dare she not meet me here more?
'Neath the ice lying,Longing and sighing,Ocean would wander and warmer lands woo.Anchored ships swinging,Sail-thoughts outflinging;--Come we together, we two!
Whirling and fallingsPictures enthralling,Fairy-light made in the forest the snow;Wood-folk are straying,Shadows are playing;--Was it your footstep? Oh, no!
Courage is failing,Hoar frost assailingBoughs of your longing surrounds with its spell.But I dare enter,Break to the center,Where in dream-fetters you dwell.
Words in this poem
- biding n.
- Residence; habitation. Rowe.
- gloaming n.
- Twilight; dusk; the fall of the evening. [Scot. & North of Eng., and in poetry.] Hogg. [See Gloom.]
- trysting n.
- An appointment; a tryst. Trysting day, an arranged day of meeting or assembling, as of soldiers, friends, and the like.
- anchored a.
- Held by an anchor; at anchor; held safely; as, an anchored bark; also, shaped like an anchor; forked; as, an anchored tongue.
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- hoar v. t.
- To become moldy or musty. [AS. harian to grow gray.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Tryst 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 Tryst, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/the-tryst.html, id L29286.
Form and metre
The Tryst is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABCCB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is dactylic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in dactylic dimeter.
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 AABCCB bidingA · glidingA · sleepB · roamingC · gloamingC · keepB
- 2 AABCCB dreamingA · beamingA · pourB · foretellingC · compellingC · moreB
- 3 AABCCB lyingA · sighingA · wooB · swingingC · outflingingC · twoB
- 4 --ABBA fallings · enthralling · snowA · strayingB · playingB · noA
- 5 AABCCB failingA · assailingA · spellB · enterC · centerC · dwellB
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 dactylic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Silent I'm biding, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| While softly gliding | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Sink the still hours to eternity's sleep. | 9 | ···/·˘/˘· |
| My fancies roaming | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| List in the gloaming:-- | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Will she the trysting now keep? | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Winter is dreaming, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Bright stars are beaming, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Smiling their light through its cloud-veil they pour, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Summer foretelling | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| Sweet love compelling;-- | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Dare she not meet me here more? | 7 | ······· |
| 'Neath the ice lying, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Longing and sighing, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Ocean would wander and warmer lands woo. | 9 | /·/˘·/˘·· |
| Anchored ships swinging, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Sail-thoughts outflinging;-- | 5 | ····· |
| Come we together, we two! | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
| Whirling and fallings | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Pictures enthralling, | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| Fairy-light made in the forest the snow; | 10 | /˘····/˘·· |
| Wood-folk are straying, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Shadows are playing;-- | 5 | /··/˘ |
| Was it your footstep? Oh, no! | 7 | ···/··· |
| Courage is failing, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Hoar frost assailing | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Boughs of your longing surrounds with its spell. | 10 | ···/˘˘/··· |
| But I dare enter, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Break to the center, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Where in dream-fetters you dwell. | 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.