Part II: Section 8
He came with heart attuned to love her,And fondly thought the dreadful pastAnd its sad memories were overAnd the new life had dawned at last,Yet paused uncertain, for his breastThrobbed with prophetic sense of sin.Dumb, nameless fears his mind possessed,Then, doubting still, the infernal guestCrossing the threshold entered in.And lo! there stood with flaming swordA guardian seraph of the LordTo bar his passage, one who smiledBenignantly, as he would flingOver that lovely, erring childThe shelter of his angel wing.The effulgence from his glance that brokeDazzled the baffled Demon's eyes,And words of greeting, sternly spoke,Fell from his lips in scornful wise.
Words in this poem
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
- nameless a.
- Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
- effulgence n.
- The state of being effulgent; extreme brilliancy; a flood of light; great luster or brightness; splendor.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- sternly adv.
- In a stern manner.
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Part II: Section 8 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 8, in The Demon (1918), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lermontov-demon/2-8.html, id L28477.
Form and metre
Part II: Section 8 is 19 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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-ABCBBCDDEFEFGHGH her · pastA · over · lastA · breastB · sinC · possessedB · guestB · inC · swordD · lordD · smiledE · flingF · childE · wingF · brokeG · eyesH · spokeG · wiseH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| He came with heart attuned to love her, | 9 | ····˘/··· |
| And fondly thought the dreadful past | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And its sad memories were over | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| And the new life had dawned at last, | 8 | ········ |
| Yet paused uncertain, for his breast | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Throbbed with prophetic sense of sin. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Dumb, nameless fears his mind possessed, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Then, doubting still, the infernal guest | 9 | ·/˘··˘/˘· |
| Crossing the threshold entered in. | 8 | /˘·/·/˘· |
| And lo! there stood with flaming sword | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A guardian seraph of the Lord | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To bar his passage, one who smiled | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Benignantly, as he would fling | 8 | ········ |
| Over that lovely, erring child | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The shelter of his angel wing. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The effulgence from his glance that broke | 9 | ·˘/˘····· |
| Dazzled the baffled Demon's eyes, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| And words of greeting, sternly spoke, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Fell from his lips in scornful wise. | 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.