Haroun Al Raschid
One day, Haroun Al Raschid readA book wherein the poet said:--
"Where are the kings, and where the restOf those who once the world possessed?
"They're gone with all their pomp and show,They're gone the way that thou shalt go.
"O thou who choosest for thy shareThe world, and what the world calls fair,
"Take all that it can give or lend,But know that death is at the end!"
Haroun Al Raschid bowed his head:Tears fell upon the page he read.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Haroun Al Raschid is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Haroun Al Raschid, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/haroun-al-raschid.html, id L17789.
Form and metre
Haroun Al Raschid is 12 lines in 6 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AA readA · saidA
- 2 AA restA · possessedA
- 3 AA showA · goA
- 4 AA shareA · fairA
- 5 AA lendA · endA
- 6 AA headA · readA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| One day, Haroun Al Raschid read | 8 | ········ |
| A book wherein the poet said:-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| "Where are the kings, and where the rest | 8 | ········ |
| Of those who once the world possessed? | 8 | ······˘/ |
| "They're gone with all their pomp and show, | 8 | ········ |
| They're gone the way that thou shalt go. | 8 | ········ |
| "O thou who choosest for thy share | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The world, and what the world calls fair, | 8 | ········ |
| "Take all that it can give or lend, | 8 | ········ |
| But know that death is at the end!" | 8 | ········ |
| Haroun Al Raschid bowed his head: | 8 | ········ |
| Tears fell upon the page he read. | 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.