Khan Zada's Song on the Hillside
The fires that burn on all the hillsLight up the landscape grey,The arid desert land distillsThe fervours of the day.
The clear white moon sails through the skiesAnd silvers all the night,I see the brilliance of your eyesAnd need no other light.
The death sighs of a thousand flowersThe fervent day has slainAre wafted through the twilight hours,And perfume all the plain.
My senses strain, and try to claspTheir sweetness in the air,In vain, in vain; they only graspThe fragrance of your hair.
The plain is endless space expressed;Vast is the sky above,I only feel, against your breast,Infinities of love.
Words in this poem
- fervent a.
- Hot; glowing; boiling; burning; as, a fervent summer. [F. fervent, L. fervens, -entis. p.pr. of fervere o the boiling hot, to boil, glow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Khan Zada's Song on the Hillside 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, Khan Zada's Song on the Hillside, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/khan-zada-s-song-on-the-hillside.html, id L22597.
Form and metre
Khan Zada's Song on the Hillside is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 hillsA · greyB · distillsA · dayB
- 2 ABAB skiesA · nightB · eyesA · lightB
- 3 ABAB flowersA · slainB · hoursA · plainB
- 4 ABAB claspA · airB · graspA · hairB
- 5 ABAB expressedA · aboveB · breastA · loveB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The fires that burn on all the hills | 8 | ·/······ |
| Light up the landscape grey, | 6 | ···/·· |
| The arid desert land distills | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The fervours of the day. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The clear white moon sails through the skies | 8 | ········ |
| And silvers all the night, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I see the brilliance of your eyes | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And need no other light. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The death sighs of a thousand flowers | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| The fervent day has slain | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Are wafted through the twilight hours, | 9 | ·/˘··/·/˘ |
| And perfume all the plain. | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| My senses strain, and try to clasp | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Their sweetness in the air, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| In vain, in vain; they only grasp | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The fragrance of your hair. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The plain is endless space expressed; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Vast is the sky above, | 6 | ······ |
| I only feel, against your breast, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Infinities of love. | 6 | ˘/˘˘·· |
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.