The Marriage of the Cid's Daughters CX
"Wife o'mine, Dame Xiména. praise God who made us all.Dame Sol and Dame Elvíra, my girls to you I say,From your marriage in all honor shall we increase alway.But that I did not begin it, the truth now understand;My lord Alfonso sought you and stately made demandWith such firm will, I wist not how to deny the thing.And I put you both, my daughters, in the keeping of the King.Know that he giveth you to wed, and that I am not the man."
Words in this poem
- dame n.
- A mistress of a family, who is a lady; a womam in authority; especially, a lady. [F. dame, LL. domna, fr. L. domina mistress, lady, fem. of dominus master, ruler, lord; akin to domare to tame, subdue. See Tame, and cf. Dam mother, Dan, Danger]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Marriage of the Cid's Daughters CX 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 CX, 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-cx.html, id L15115.
Form and metre
The Marriage of the Cid's Daughters CX is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is trochaic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic heptameter.
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 ---AABB- all · say · alway · understandA · demandA · thingB · kingB · man
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Wife o'mine, Dame Xiména. praise God who made us all. | 13 | ············· |
| Dame Sol and Dame Elvíra, my girls to you I say, | 13 | ············· |
| From your marriage in all honor shall we increase alway. | 14 | ··/˘··/˘··/·/˘ |
| But that I did not begin it, the truth now understand; | 14 | ·····˘/·····˘/ |
| My lord Alfonso sought you and stately made demand | 13 | ········/˘·˘/ |
| With such firm will, I wist not how to deny the thing. | 13 | ·········˘/·· |
| And I put you both, my daughters, in the keeping of the King. | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| Know that he giveth you to wed, and that I am not the man." | 15 | ···/˘·········· |
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.