Part I: Section 6
From lofty cliff that castle loweredGrim, silent, motionless alway;But all is mirth and joy to-day,And zithers sound, and wine is poured.Gudàl his daughter's hand hath plighted,And all his clan to feast invited.And on the housetop, thickly strewn,The bride Tamàra, fair and young,Is seated in a virgin throng,'Mid song and dance and zither's tune,While the sun's orb is sinking soonBehind the peaks, and for their pleasureThey dance in a cleared space betweenMaids clapping hands to music's measure.And lightly her gay tambourineTwirling with one hand round her head,The young bride springs with fairy tread.And lighter than a bird she flashes,Now darting here, now breathless staying,And all the merry girls surveyingWith sparkling eyes 'neath long eye-lashes.She guides the chorus through its mazes'Mid rustling silk and gauzy shimmer,And oft a dainty foot upraises,Seeming to float, an airy swimmer.And ah! that smile of childlike graceLighting her laughter-loving face.Not Cynthia's quivering beams, the whileOn castle wall and turret glancing,Could match the radiance of that smileThan youth and gladness more entrancing.
Words in this poem
- breathless a.
- Spent with labor or violent action; out of breath.
- gauzy a.
- Pertaining to, or resembling, gauze; thin and slight as gauze.
- shimmer v. i.
- To shine with a tremulous or intermittent light; to shine faintly; to gleam; to glisten; to glimmer. [OE. schimeren, AS. scimerian; akin to scimian, sciman, to glitter, D. schemeren, G. schimmern, Dan. skimre, Sw. skimra, AS. scima a light, brightness, Icel. ski]
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- childlike a.
- Resembling a child, or that which belongs to children; becoming a child; meek; submissive; dutiful.
- glancing a.
- Shooting, as light.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Part I: Section 6 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 6, in The Demon (1918), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lermontov-demon/1-6.html, id L28459.
Form and metre
Part I: Section 6 is 31 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ------A--AABCBCDDEFFEGHGHIIJ-J- lowered · alway · day · poured · plighted · invited · strewnA · young · throng · tuneA · soonA · pleasureB · betweenC · measureB · tambourineC · headD · treadD · flashesE · stayingF · surveyingF · lashesE · mazesG · shimmerH · upraisesG · swimmerH · graceI · faceI · whileJ · glancing · smileJ · entrancing
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From lofty cliff that castle lowered | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Grim, silent, motionless alway; | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| But all is mirth and joy to-day, | 8 | ········ |
| And zithers sound, and wine is poured. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Gudàl his daughter's hand hath plighted, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And all his clan to feast invited. | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| And on the housetop, thickly strewn, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| The bride Tamàra, fair and young, | 8 | ········ |
| Is seated in a virgin throng, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| 'Mid song and dance and zither's tune, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| While the sun's orb is sinking soon | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Behind the peaks, and for their pleasure | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| They dance in a cleared space between | 8 | ········ |
| Maids clapping hands to music's measure. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And lightly her gay tambourine | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Twirling with one hand round her head, | 8 | /˘······ |
| The young bride springs with fairy tread. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And lighter than a bird she flashes, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Now darting here, now breathless staying, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And all the merry girls surveying | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| With sparkling eyes 'neath long eye-lashes. | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| She guides the chorus through its mazes | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| 'Mid rustling silk and gauzy shimmer, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And oft a dainty foot upraises, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Seeming to float, an airy swimmer. | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| And ah! that smile of childlike grace | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Lighting her laughter-loving face. | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| Not Cynthia's quivering beams, the while | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| On castle wall and turret glancing, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Could match the radiance of that smile | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Than youth and gladness more entrancing. | 9 | ···/˘·/˘˘ |
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.