The Wild Gazelle
The wild gazelle on Judah's hillsExulting yet may bound,And drink from all the living rillsThat gush on holy ground;Its airy step and glorious eyeMay glance in tameless transport by:--
A step as fleet, an eye more bright,Hath Judah witnessed there;And o'er her scenes of lost delightInhabitants more fair.The cedars wave on Lebanon,But Judah's statelier maids are gone!
Than Israel's scattered race;For, taking root, it there remainsIn solitary grace:It cannot quit its place of birth,It will not live in other earth.
But we must wander witheringly,In other lands to die;And where our fathers' ashes be,Our own may never lie:Our temple hath not left a stone,And Mockery sits on Salem's throne.
Words in this poem
- exulting a.
- Rejoicing triumphantly or exceedingly; exultant.
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- tameless a.
- Incapable of being tamed; wild; untamed; untamable. Bp. Hall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wild Gazelle 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 Wild Gazelle, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/the-wild-gazelle.html, id L23940.
Form and metre
The Wild Gazelle is 23 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABABCC hillsA · boundB · rillsA · groundB · eyeC · byC
- 2 ABABCC brightA · thereB · delightA · fairB · lebanonC · goneC
- 3 A-ABB raceA · remains · graceA · birthB · earthB
- 4 -AAABB witheringly · dieA · beA · lieA · stoneB · throneB
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 wild gazelle on Judah's hills | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Exulting yet may bound, | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| And drink from all the living rills | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That gush on holy ground; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Its airy step and glorious eye | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| May glance in tameless transport by:-- | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| A step as fleet, an eye more bright, | 8 | ········ |
| Hath Judah witnessed there; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And o'er her scenes of lost delight | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Inhabitants more fair. | 6 | ˘/˘˘·· |
| The cedars wave on Lebanon, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| But Judah's statelier maids are gone! | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Than Israel's scattered race; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| For, taking root, it there remains | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| In solitary grace: | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
| It cannot quit its place of birth, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| It will not live in other earth. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But we must wander witheringly, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| In other lands to die; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And where our fathers' ashes be, | 8 | ··//˘/˘· |
| Our own may never lie: | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Our temple hath not left a stone, | 8 | //˘····· |
| And Mockery sits on Salem's throne. | 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.