Malaria
He lurks among the reeds, beside the marsh,Red oleanders twisted in His hair,His eyes are haggard and His lips are harsh,Upon His breast the bones show gaunt and bare.
The green and stagnant waters lick His feet,And from their filmy, iridescent scumClouds of mosquitoes, gauzy in the heat,Rise with His gifts: Death and Delirium.
His messengers: They bear the deadly taintOn spangled wings aloft and far away,Making thin music, strident and yet faint,From golden eve to silver break of day.
The baffled sleeper hears th' incessant whineThrough his tormented dreams, and finds no restThe thirsty insects use his blood for wine,Probe his blue veins and pasture on his breast.
While far away He in the marshes lies,Staining the stagnant water with His breath,An endless hunger burning in His eyes,A famine unassuaged, whose food is Death.
He hides among the ghostly mists that floatOver the water, weird and white and chill,And peasants, passing in their laden boat,Shiver and feel a sense of coming ill.
A thousand burn and die; He takes no heed,Their bones, unburied, strewn upon the plain,Only increase the frenzy of His greedTo add more victims to th' already slain.
He loves the haggard frame, the shattered mind,Gloats with delight upon the glazing eye,Yet, in one thing, His cruelty is kind,He sends them lovely dreams before they die;
Dreams that bestow on them their heart's desire,Visions that find them mad, and leave them blest,To sink, forgetful of the fever's fire,Softly, as in a lover's arms, to rest.
Words in this poem
- haggard a.
- Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed; as, a haggard or refractory hawk. Shak [F. hagard; of German origin, and prop. meaning, of the hegde or woods, wild, untamed. See Hedge, 1st Haw, and -ard.]
- gaunt a.
- Attenuated, as with fasting or suffering; lean; meager; pinched and grim. [Cf. Norw. gand a thin pointed stick, a tall and thin man, and W. gwan weak.]
- filmy a.
- Composed of film or films.
- gauzy a.
- Pertaining to, or resembling, gauze; thin and slight as gauze.
- strident a.
- Characterized by harshness; grating; shrill. [L. stridens, -entis, p.pr. of stridere to make a grating or creaking noise.]
- sleeper n.
- One who sleeps; a slumberer; hence, a drone, or lazy person.
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- greed n.
- An eager desire or longing; greediness; as, a greed of gain. [Akin to Goth. grdus hunger, Icel. graedhr. sq. root34. See Greedy.]
- forgetful a.
- Apt to forget; easily losing remembrance; as, a forgetful man should use helps to strengthen his memory.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Malaria 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, Malaria, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/malaria.html, id L22641.
Form and metre
Malaria is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See 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 ABAB marshA · hairB · harshA · bareB
- 2 ABAB feetA · scumB · heatA · deliriumB
- 3 ABAB taintA · awayB · faintA · dayB
- 4 ABAB whineA · restB · wineA · breastB
- 5 ABAB liesA · breathB · eyesA · deathB
- 6 ABAB floatA · chillB · boatA · illB
- 7 ABAB heedA · plainB · greedA · slainB
- 8 ABAB mindA · eyeB · kindA · dieB
- 9 ABAB desireA · blestB · fireA · restB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| He lurks among the reeds, beside the marsh, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Red oleanders twisted in His hair, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| His eyes are haggard and His lips are harsh, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Upon His breast the bones show gaunt and bare. | 10 | ·········· |
| The green and stagnant waters lick His feet, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And from their filmy, iridescent scum | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Clouds of mosquitoes, gauzy in the heat, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Rise with His gifts: Death and Delirium. | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| His messengers: They bear the deadly taint | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| On spangled wings aloft and far away, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| Making thin music, strident and yet faint, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| From golden eve to silver break of day. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The baffled sleeper hears th' incessant whine | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Through his tormented dreams, and finds no rest | 10 | ··/·˘····· |
| The thirsty insects use his blood for wine, | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| Probe his blue veins and pasture on his breast. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| While far away He in the marshes lies, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Staining the stagnant water with His breath, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| An endless hunger burning in His eyes, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| A famine unassuaged, whose food is Death. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| He hides among the ghostly mists that float | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Over the water, weird and white and chill, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And peasants, passing in their laden boat, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Shiver and feel a sense of coming ill. | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| A thousand burn and die; He takes no heed, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Their bones, unburied, strewn upon the plain, | 9 | ········· |
| Only increase the frenzy of His greed | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘··· |
| To add more victims to th' already slain. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| He loves the haggard frame, the shattered mind, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Gloats with delight upon the glazing eye, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Yet, in one thing, His cruelty is kind, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| He sends them lovely dreams before they die; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Dreams that bestow on them their heart's desire, | 11 | ··˘/····˘/˘ |
| Visions that find them mad, and leave them blest, | 10 | /˘········ |
| To sink, forgetful of the fever's fire, | 11 | ··˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Softly, as in a lover's arms, to rest. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
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.