The Marriage of the Cid's Daughters CI
They kissed his hands and entered to take their rest that night.In all things that they needed he bade men serve them well.
Of the two Heirs of Carrión now am I fain to tell,How secretly they counselled what thing should be their cast:"Of my lord Cid the high affairs go forward wondrous fast.Let us demand his daughters that with them we may wed.Our fortune and our honor thereby may be well sped."Unto the King Alfonso with their secret forth went they.
Words in this poem
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Marriage of the Cid's Daughters CI is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Lay of the Cid, Project Gutenberg ebook #6088, the R. Selden Rose and Leonard Bacon 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: Anonymous, The Marriage of the Cid's Daughters CI, in The Lay of the Cid (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6088, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lay-of-the-cid/the-marriage-of-the-cid-s-daughters-ci.html, id L15106.
Form and metre
The Marriage of the Cid's Daughters CI is 8 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is alexandrines, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.2 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in alexandrines.
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.
- 2 -AABB- tell · castA · fastA · wedB · spedB · they
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 alexandrines. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| They kissed his hands and entered to take their rest that night. | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| In all things that they needed he bade men serve them well. | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| Of the two Heirs of Carrión now am I fain to tell, | 13 | ············· |
| How secretly they counselled what thing should be their cast: | 13 | ·/˘˘·/˘······ |
| "Of my lord Cid the high affairs go forward wondrous fast. | 14 | ······˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Let us demand his daughters that with them we may wed. | 13 | ··˘/·/˘······ |
| Our fortune and our honor thereby may be well sped." | 13 | //˘·//˘······ |
| Unto the King Alfonso with their secret forth went they. | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
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.