Part II: Section 3
Between two hills and hid from view,The Convent stood in grateful shade,Where sycamore and poplar grew,And oft the flickering shadows playedOn window of the cloister cell,When at her crucifix she prayed,And night had fallen on hill and dell.She saw where solemn crosses roseTo mark the silent homes of peace,Where anchorites had found repose.By day, among the almond trees,She heard glad birds make melodies.Below the beetling cliff each springRan to meet spring o'er stone and pebble,Rippling with noisy, happy treble,Glad in one stream their lymphs to fling,And flow along the gorge together'Tween paths of moss and flower and heather.
Words in this poem
- crucifix n.
- A representation in art of the figure of Christ upon the cross; esp., the sculptured figure affixed to a real cross of wood, ivory, metal, or the like, used by the Roman Catholics in their devotions. [F. crucifix or LL. crucifixum, fr. L. crux, crucis, cross + figere, fixum, to fix. See Cross, and Fix, and cf. Crucify.]
- dell n.
- A small, retired valley; a ravine. [AS. del, akin to E. dale; cf. D. delle, del, low ground. See Dale.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Part II: Section 3 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 II: Section 3, in The Demon (1918), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lermontov-demon/2-3.html, id L28472.
Form and metre
Part II: Section 3 is 18 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABABCBCD-D-DEFFEGG viewA · shadeB · grewA · playedB · cellC · prayedB · dellC · roseD · peace · reposeD · trees · melodiesD · springE · pebbleF · trebleF · flingE · togetherG · heatherG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Between two hills and hid from view, | 8 | ········ |
| The Convent stood in grateful shade, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Where sycamore and poplar grew, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And oft the flickering shadows played | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| On window of the cloister cell, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When at her crucifix she prayed, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And night had fallen on hill and dell. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| She saw where solemn crosses rose | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To mark the silent homes of peace, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Where anchorites had found repose. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| By day, among the almond trees, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| She heard glad birds make melodies. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Below the beetling cliff each spring | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Ran to meet spring o'er stone and pebble, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Rippling with noisy, happy treble, | 9 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Glad in one stream their lymphs to fling, | 8 | ········ |
| And flow along the gorge together | 9 | ··˘/··˘/˘ |
| 'Tween paths of moss and flower and heather. | 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.