The Obdurate Beauty
To Juana ever gay,Sultan Achmet spoke one day"Lo, the realms that kneel to ownHomage to my sword and crownAll I'd freely cast away,Maiden dear, for thee alone."
"Be a Christian, noble king!For it were a grievous thing:Love to seek and find too wellIn the arms of infidel.Spain with cry of shame would ring,If from honor faithful fell."
"By these pearls whose spotless chain,Oh, my gentle sovereign,Clasps thy neck of ivory,Aught thou askest I will be,If that necklace pure of stainThou wilt give for rosary."
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- kneel v. i.
- To bend the knee; to fall or rest on the knees; -- sometimes with down. [OE. knelen, cneolien; akin to D. knielen, Dan. knæle. See Knee.]
- infidel a.
- Not holding the faith; -- applied esp. to one who does not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the supernatural origin of Christianity. [L. infidelis; pref. in- not + fidelis faithful, fr. fides faith: cf. F. infidèle. See Fidelity.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- rosary n.
- A bed of roses, or place where roses grow. [LL. rosarium a string of beads, L. rosarium a place planted with roses, rosa a rose: cf. F. rosaire. See Rose.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Obdurate Beauty 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, The Obdurate Beauty, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/the-obdurate-beauty.html, id L26730.
Form and metre
The Obdurate Beauty is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 AAB-AB gayA · dayA · ownB · crown · awayA · aloneB
- 2 AABBAB kingA · thingA · wellB · infidelB · ringA · fellB
- 3 AA--A- chainA · sovereignA · ivory · be · stainA · rosary
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| To Juana ever gay, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Sultan Achmet spoke one day | 7 | /˘····· |
| "Lo, the realms that kneel to own | 7 | ······· |
| Homage to my sword and crown | 7 | /˘····· |
| All I'd freely cast away, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Maiden dear, for thee alone." | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| "Be a Christian, noble king! | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| For it were a grievous thing: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Love to seek and find too well | 7 | ······· |
| In the arms of infidel. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Spain with cry of shame would ring, | 7 | ······· |
| If from honor faithful fell." | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| "By these pearls whose spotless chain, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Oh, my gentle sovereign, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Clasps thy neck of ivory, | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Aught thou askest I will be, | 7 | ······· |
| If that necklace pure of stain | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Thou wilt give for rosary." | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
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.