Kashmiri Song by Juma
You never loved me, and yet to save me,One unforgetable night you gave meSuch chill embraces as the snow-covered heightsReceive from clouds, in northern, Auroral nights.Such keen communion as the frozen mereHas with immaculate moonlight, cold and clear.And all desire,Like failing fire,Died slowly, faded surely, and sank to restAgainst the delicate chillness of your breast.
Words in this poem
- auroral a.
- Belonging to, or resembling, the aurora (the dawn or the northern lights); rosy.
- immaculate a.
- Without stain or blemish; spotless; undefiled; clear; pure. [L. immaculatus; pref. im- not + maculatus, p. p. of maculare to spot, stane, fr. macula spot. See Mail armor.]
- chillness n.
- Coolness; coldness; a chill.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Kashmiri Song by Juma 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, Kashmiri Song by Juma, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/kashmiri-song-by-juma.html, id L22575.
Form and metre
Kashmiri Song by Juma is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDEE meA · meA · heightsB · nightsB · mereC · clearC · desireD · fireD · restE · breastE
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You never loved me, and yet to save me, | 11 | ·/˘·˘······ |
| One unforgetable night you gave me | 10 | ·········· |
| Such chill embraces as the snow-covered heights | 11 | ··˘/˘···/˘· |
| Receive from clouds, in northern, Auroral nights. | 11 | ˘/···/˘˘/˘· |
| Such keen communion as the frozen mere | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Has with immaculate moonlight, cold and clear. | 11 | ··˘/˘˘/···· |
| And all desire, | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Like failing fire, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Died slowly, faded surely, and sank to rest | 11 | ·/˘/˘/˘···· |
| Against the delicate chillness of your breast. | 11 | ···/˘˘/˘··· |
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.