Feroza
The evening sky was as green as Jade,As Emerald turf by Lotus lake,Behind the Kafila far she strayed,(The Pearls are lost if the Necklace break!)
A lingering freshness touched the airFrom palm-trees, clustered around a Spring,The great, grim Desert lay vast and bare,But Youth is ever a careless thing.
The Raiders threw her upon the sand,Men of the Wilderness know no laws,They tore the Amethysts off her hand,And rent the folds of her veiling gauze.
They struck the lips that they might have kissed,Pitiless they to her pain and fear,And wrenched the gold from her broken wrist,No use to cry; there were none to hear.
Her scarlet mouth and her onyx eyes,Her braided hair in its silken sheen,Were surely meet for a Lover's prize,But Fate dissented, and stepped between.
Across the Zenith the vultures fly,Cruel of beak and heavy of wing.Thus it was written that she should die.Inshallah! Death is a transient thing.
Words in this poem
- tore n.
- The dead grass that remains on mowing land in winter and spring. Mortimer. [Probably from the root of tear; cf. W. tór a break, cut, tóri to break, cut.]
- veiling n.
- A veil; a thin covering; also, material for making veils.
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Feroza is in the public domain. This text is taken from India's Love Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #8197; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Laurence Hope, Feroza, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/feroza.html, id L22643.
Form and metre
Feroza is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 jadeA · lakeB · strayedA · breakB
- 2 ABAB airA · springB · bareA · thingB
- 3 ABAB sandA · lawsB · handA · gauzeB
- 4 ABAB kissedA · fearB · wristA · hearB
- 5 ABAB eyesA · sheenB · prizeA · betweenB
- 6 ABAB flyA · wingB · dieA · thingB
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 evening sky was as green as Jade, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| As Emerald turf by Lotus lake, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Behind the Kafila far she strayed, | 9 | ········· |
| (The Pearls are lost if the Necklace break!) | 9 | ······/˘· |
| A lingering freshness touched the air | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| From palm-trees, clustered around a Spring, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The great, grim Desert lay vast and bare, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| But Youth is ever a careless thing. | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| The Raiders threw her upon the sand, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Men of the Wilderness know no laws, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| They tore the Amethysts off her hand, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And rent the folds of her veiling gauze. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| They struck the lips that they might have kissed, | 9 | ········· |
| Pitiless they to her pain and fear, | 8 | /˘······ |
| And wrenched the gold from her broken wrist, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| No use to cry; there were none to hear. | 9 | ········· |
| Her scarlet mouth and her onyx eyes, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Her braided hair in its silken sheen, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Were surely meet for a Lover's prize, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| But Fate dissented, and stepped between. | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| Across the Zenith the vultures fly, | 9 | ˘/·/˘·/˘· |
| Cruel of beak and heavy of wing. | 8 | /···/˘·· |
| Thus it was written that she should die. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Inshallah! Death is a transient thing. | 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.