Mazeppa
As when a mortal--Genius' prize, alack!Is, living, bound upon thy fatal back,Thou reinless racing steed!In vain he writhes, mere cloud upon a star,Thou bearest him as went Mazeppa, farOut of the flow'ry mead,--So--though thou speed'st implacable, (like him,Spent, pallid, torn, bruised, weary, sore and dim,As if each stride the nearer bringHim to the grave)--when comes the time,After the fall, he rises--KING!
Words in this poem
- alack interj.
- An exclamation expressive of sorrow. [Prob. from ah! lack! OE. lak loss, failure, misfortune. See Lack.]
- reinless a.
- Not having, or not governed by, reins; hence, not checked or restrained.
- steed n.
- A horse, especially a spirited horse for state of war; -- used chiefly in poetry or stately prose. [OE. stede, AS. steda a stud-horse, war horse, fr. stod a stud of breeding steeds; akin to G. stute a mare, Icel. stedda, sto, a stud. *163. See Stud of horses.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- stride v. t.
- To walk with long steps, especially in a measured or pompous manner. [AS. stridan to stride, to strive; akin to LG. striden, OFries. strida to strive, D. strijden to strive, to contend, G. streiten, OHG. stritan; of uncertain orig]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mazeppa is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, the various hands translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Victor Hugo, Mazeppa, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/mazeppa.html, id L26733.
Form and metre
Mazeppa is 11 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 AABCCBDDE-E alackA · backA · steedB · starC · farC · meadB · himD · dimD · bringE · time · kingE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As when a mortal--Genius' prize, alack! | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Is, living, bound upon thy fatal back, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Thou reinless racing steed! | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| In vain he writhes, mere cloud upon a star, | 10 | ·········· |
| Thou bearest him as went Mazeppa, far | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Out of the flow'ry mead,-- | 6 | ······ |
| So--though thou speed'st implacable, (like him, | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Spent, pallid, torn, bruised, weary, sore and dim, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| As if each stride the nearer bring | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Him to the grave)--when comes the time, | 8 | ········ |
| After the fall, he rises--KING! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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.