Adelgitha
The ordeal’s fatal trumpet sounded,And sad pale Adelgitha came,When forth a valiant champion bounded,And slew the slanderer of her fame.
She wept, delivered from her danger;But when he knelt to claim her glove—“Seek not,” she cried, “oh! gallant stranger,For hapless Adelgitha’s love.
“For he is in a foreign far landWhose arm should now have set me freeAnd I must wear the willow garlandFor him that’s dead, or false to me.”
“Nay! say not that his faith is tainted!”He raised his vizor—At the sightShe fell into his arms and fainted;It was indeed her own true knight!
Words in this poem
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
- slanderer n.
- One who slanders; a defamer; a calumniator. Jer. Taylor.
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Adelgitha is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, Project Gutenberg ebook #59788; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Campbell, Adelgitha, in The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems (1824), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59788, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campbell-poems/adelgitha.html, id L24421.
Form and metre
Adelgitha is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 soundedA · cameB · boundedA · fameB
- 2 ABAB dangerA · gloveB · strangerA · loveB
- 3 ABAB landA · freeB · garlandA · meB
- 4 ABAB taintedA · sightB · faintedA · knightB
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 ordeal’s fatal trumpet sounded, | 9 | ·˘//˘/˘/˘ |
| And sad pale Adelgitha came, | 8 | ········ |
| When forth a valiant champion bounded, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| And slew the slanderer of her fame. | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| She wept, delivered from her danger; | 10 | ··˘/˘˘··/˘ |
| But when he knelt to claim her glove— | 8 | ········ |
| “Seek not,” she cried, “oh! gallant stranger, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| For hapless Adelgitha’s love. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| “For he is in a foreign far land | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Whose arm should now have set me free | 8 | ········ |
| And I must wear the willow garland | 9 | ·····/·/˘ |
| For him that’s dead, or false to me.” | 8 | ········ |
| “Nay! say not that his faith is tainted!” | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| He raised his vizor—At the sight | 9 | ··˘·/˘··· |
| She fell into his arms and fainted; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| It was indeed her own true knight! | 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.