Poem IX
His head was leant upon his hand,His eye looked o'er the dark blue waterThat swiftly glides and gently swellsBetween the winding Dardanelles;But yet he saw nor sea nor strand,Nor even his Pacha's turbaned bandMix in the game of mimic slaughter,Careering cleave the folded feltWith sabre stroke right sharply dealt;Nor marked the javelin-darting crowd,Nor heard their Ollahs wild and loud--He thought but of old Giaffir's daughter!
Words in this poem
- turbaned a.
- Wearing a turban.
- sabre n.
- A sword with a broad and heavy blade, thick at the back, and usually more or less curved like a scimiter; a cavalry sword. Saber fish, or Sabre fish (Zoöl.), the cutlass fish.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poem IX 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, Poem IX, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/poem-ix.html, id L23874.
Form and metre
Poem IX is 12 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABCCAABDDEEB. 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 ABCCAABDDEEB handA · waterB · swellsC · dardanellesC · strandA · bandA · slaughterB · feltD · dealtD · crowdE · loudE · daughterB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| His head was leant upon his hand, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| His eye looked o'er the dark blue water | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| That swiftly glides and gently swells | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Between the winding Dardanelles; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But yet he saw nor sea nor strand, | 8 | ········ |
| Nor even his Pacha's turbaned band | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Mix in the game of mimic slaughter, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Careering cleave the folded felt | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| With sabre stroke right sharply dealt; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Nor marked the javelin-darting crowd, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Nor heard their Ollahs wild and loud-- | 8 | ········ |
| He thought but of old Giaffir's daughter! | 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.