The Chain I Gave. From the Turkish
The chain I gave was fair to view,The lute I added sweet in sound;The heart that offered both was true,And ill deserved the fate it found.
These gifts were charmed by secret spell,Thy truth in absence to divine;And they have done their duty well,--Alas! they could not teach thee thine.
That chain was firm in every link,But not to bear a stranger's touch;That lute was sweet--till thou couldst thinkIn other hands its notes were such.
Let him who from thy neck unboundThe chain which shivered in his grasp,Who saw that lute refuse to sound,Restring the chords, renew the clasp.
When thou wert changed, they altered too;The chain is broke, the music mute,'Tis past--to them and thee adieu--False heart, frail chain, and silent lute.
Words in this poem
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Chain I Gave. From the Turkish 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, The Chain I Gave. From the Turkish, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/the-chain-i-gave-from-the-turkish.html, id L23847.
Form and metre
The Chain I Gave. From the Turkish is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 ABAB viewA · soundB · trueA · foundB
- 2 ABAB spellA · divineB · wellA · thineB
- 3 ABAB linkA · touchB · thinkA · suchB
- 4 ABAB unboundA · graspB · soundA · claspB
- 5 ABAB tooA · muteB · adieuA · luteB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The chain I gave was fair to view, | 8 | ········ |
| The lute I added sweet in sound; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The heart that offered both was true, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And ill deserved the fate it found. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| These gifts were charmed by secret spell, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy truth in absence to divine; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And they have done their duty well,-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Alas! they could not teach thee thine. | 8 | ˘/······ |
| That chain was firm in every link, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But not to bear a stranger's touch; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That lute was sweet--till thou couldst think | 8 | ········ |
| In other hands its notes were such. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Let him who from thy neck unbound | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The chain which shivered in his grasp, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Who saw that lute refuse to sound, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Restring the chords, renew the clasp. | 8 | /˘··˘/·· |
| When thou wert changed, they altered too; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The chain is broke, the music mute, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| 'Tis past--to them and thee adieu-- | 8 | ······˘/ |
| False heart, frail chain, and silent lute. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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.