Part I: Section 14
In Gudàl's court loud wail and din,And eager peasants throng and press.Whose steed is this that gallops in,Wild-eyed and staggering in distress,And falls within the courtyard dead?And who that knight in armour red,With frowning brow and firm set lipTelling a murderous tale of pain,While his dead hand the horse's maneClutches with last convulsive grip?Too soon the wedding day is over,Poor bride, behold the expected lover,As true to plighted, princely wordHe galloped to the festal board!Hapless Tamàra, all is o'er,And he will mount his steed no more.
Words in this poem
- 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.]
- armour n.
- Defensive arms for the body; any clothing or covering worn to protect one's person in battle. [OE. armure, fr. F. armure, OF. armeure, fr. L. armatura. See Armature.]
- festal a.
- Of or pertaining to a holiday or a feast; joyous; festive. [L. festum holiday, feast. See feast.]
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Part I: Section 14 is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Demon, translated from the Russian of Lermontoff by Robert Burness, B.A. (Oxon.), Edinburgh: Douglas & Foulis, 1918, Internet Archive, the Robert Burness 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: Mikhail Lermontov, Part I: Section 14, in The Demon (1918), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lermontov-demon/1-14.html, id L28467.
Form and metre
Part I: Section 14 is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABABCCDEED------ dinA · pressB · inA · distressB · deadC · redC · lipD · painE · maneE · gripD · over · lover · word · board · o'er · more
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In Gudàl's court loud wail and din, | 8 | ········ |
| And eager peasants throng and press. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Whose steed is this that gallops in, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Wild-eyed and staggering in distress, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And falls within the courtyard dead? | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And who that knight in armour red, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With frowning brow and firm set lip | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Telling a murderous tale of pain, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| While his dead hand the horse's mane | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Clutches with last convulsive grip? | 8 | /˘··˘/˘· |
| Too soon the wedding day is over, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Poor bride, behold the expected lover, | 10 | ··˘/·˘/˘/˘ |
| As true to plighted, princely word | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| He galloped to the festal board! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Hapless Tamàra, all is o'er, | 8 | /˘······ |
| And he will mount his steed no more. | 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.