Jephtha's Daughter
Since our Country, our God--Oh, my Sire!Demand that thy Daughter expire;Since thy triumph was bought by thy vow--Strike the bosom that's bared for thee now!
And the voice of my mourning is o'er,And the mountains behold me no more:If the hand that I love lay me low,There cannot be pain in the blow!
And of this, oh, my Father! be sure--That the blood of thy child is as pureAs the blessing I beg ere it flow,And the last thought that soothes me below.
Though the virgins of Salem lament,Be the judge and the hero unbent!I have won the great battle for thee,And my Father and Country are free!
When this blood of thy giving hath gushed,When the voice that thou lovest is hushed,Let my memory still be thy pride,And forget not I smiled as I died!
Words in this poem
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jephtha's Daughter is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 3, Project Gutenberg ebook #21811; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lord Byron, Jephtha's Daughter, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/jephtha-s-daughter.html, id L23943.
Form and metre
Jephtha's Daughter is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 98%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 sire · expire · vowA · nowA
- 2 --AA o'er · more · lowA · blowA
- 3 AABB sureA · pureA · flowB · belowB
- 4 AABB lamentA · unbentA · theeB · freeB
- 5 AABB gushedA · hushedA · prideB · diedB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Since our Country, our God--Oh, my Sire! | 9 | ·//˘/···/ |
| Demand that thy Daughter expire; | 8 | ˘/··/˘˘/ |
| Since thy triumph was bought by thy vow-- | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Strike the bosom that's bared for thee now! | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And the voice of my mourning is o'er, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| And the mountains behold me no more: | 9 | ··/˘˘/··· |
| If the hand that I love lay me low, | 9 | ········· |
| There cannot be pain in the blow! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And of this, oh, my Father! be sure-- | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| That the blood of thy child is as pure | 9 | ········· |
| As the blessing I beg ere it flow, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And the last thought that soothes me below. | 9 | ········· |
| Though the virgins of Salem lament, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Be the judge and the hero unbent! | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| I have won the great battle for thee, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| And my Father and Country are free! | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
| When this blood of thy giving hath gushed, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| When the voice that thou lovest is hushed, | 9 | ········· |
| Let my memory still be thy pride, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And forget not I smiled as I died! | 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.