Three Songs of Zahir-u-Din
The tropic day's redundant charmsCool twilight soothes away,The sun slips down behind the palmsAnd leaves the landscape grey.I want to take you in my armsAnd kiss your lips away!
I wake with sunshine in my eyesAnd find the morning blue,A night of dreams behind me liesAnd all were dreams of you!Ah, how I wish the while I rise,That what I dream were true.
The weary day's laborious pace,I hasten and beguileBy fancies, which I backwards traceTo things I loved erstwhile;The weary sweetness of your face,Your faint, illusive smile.
The silken softness of your hairWhere faint bronze shadows are,Your strangely slight and youthful air,No passions seem to mar,--Oh, why, since Fate has made you fair,Must Fortune keep you far?
Thus spent, the day so long and brightLess hot and brilliant seems,Till in a final flare of lightThe sun withdraws his beams.Then, in the coolness of the night,I meet you in my dreams!
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- erstwhile adv.
- Till then or now; heretofore; formerly.
- illusive a.
- Deceiving by false show; deceitful; deceptive; false; illusory; unreal. [See Illude.]
- strangely adv.
- As something foreign, or not one's own; in a manner adapted to something foreign and strange.
- flare v. i.
- To burn with an unsteady or waving flame; as, the candle flares. [Cf. Norw. flara to blaze, flame, adorn with tinsel, dial. Sw. flasa upp, and E. flash, or flacker.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Three Songs of Zahir-u-Din 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, Three Songs of Zahir-u-Din, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/three-songs-of-zahir-u-din.html, id L22614.
Form and metre
Three Songs of Zahir-u-Din is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 AB-BAB charmsA · awayB · palms · greyB · armsA · awayB
- 2 ABABAB eyesA · blueB · liesA · youB · riseA · trueB
- 3 ABABAB paceA · beguileB · traceA · erstwhileB · faceA · smileB
- 4 ABABAB hairA · areB · airA · marB · fairA · farB
- 5 ABABAB brightA · seemsB · lightA · beamsB · nightA · dreamsB
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 tropic day's redundant charms | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Cool twilight soothes away, | 6 | ·/··˘/ |
| The sun slips down behind the palms | 8 | ········ |
| And leaves the landscape grey. | 6 | ···/·· |
| I want to take you in my arms | 8 | ········ |
| And kiss your lips away! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| I wake with sunshine in my eyes | 8 | ···/···· |
| And find the morning blue, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A night of dreams behind me lies | 8 | ········ |
| And all were dreams of you! | 6 | ······ |
| Ah, how I wish the while I rise, | 8 | ········ |
| That what I dream were true. | 6 | ······ |
| The weary day's laborious pace, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| I hasten and beguile | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| By fancies, which I backwards trace | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To things I loved erstwhile; | 6 | ····/· |
| The weary sweetness of your face, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Your faint, illusive smile. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| The silken softness of your hair | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Where faint bronze shadows are, | 6 | ···/·· |
| Your strangely slight and youthful air, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| No passions seem to mar,-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Oh, why, since Fate has made you fair, | 8 | ········ |
| Must Fortune keep you far? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Thus spent, the day so long and bright | 8 | ········ |
| Less hot and brilliant seems, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Till in a final flare of light | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The sun withdraws his beams. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Then, in the coolness of the night, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I meet you in my dreams! | 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.