The Siege of Kazan
Black are the moors before Kazan,And their stagnant waters smell of blood:I said in my heart, with horse and man,I will swim across this shallow flood.
Under the feet of Argamack,Like new moons were the shoes he bare,Silken trappings hung on his back,In a talisman on his neck, a prayer.
My warriors, thought I, are following me;But when I looked behind, alas!Not one of all the band could I see,All had sunk in the black morass!
Where are our shallow fords? and whereThe power of Kazan with its fourfold gates?From the prison windows our maidens fairTalk of us still through the iron grates.
We cannot hear them; for horse and manLie buried deep in the dark abyss!Ah! the black day hath come down on Kazan!Ah! was ever a grief like this?
Words in this poem
- morass n.
- A tract of soft, wet ground; a marsh; a fen. Morass ore. (Min.) See Bog ore, under Bog. [OE. marras, mareis (perh. through D. moeras), fr. F. marais, prob. from L. mare sea, in LL., any body of water; but perh. influenced by some German word. See Me]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Siege of Kazan 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, The Siege of Kazan, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-siege-of-kazan.html, id L18102.
Form and metre
The Siege of Kazan is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic pentameter.
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 ABAB kazanA · bloodB · manA · floodB
- 2 ABAB argamackA · bareB · backA · prayerB
- 3 ABAB meA · alasB · seeA · morassB
- 4 ABAB whereA · gatesB · fairA · gratesB
- 5 ABAB manA · abyssB · kazanA · thisB
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 trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Black are the moors before Kazan, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And their stagnant waters smell of blood: | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| I said in my heart, with horse and man, | 9 | ········· |
| I will swim across this shallow flood. | 9 | ···˘/·/˘· |
| Under the feet of Argamack, | 8 | ········ |
| Like new moons were the shoes he bare, | 8 | ········ |
| Silken trappings hung on his back, | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| In a talisman on his neck, a prayer. | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
| My warriors, thought I, are following me; | 10 | ·/˘···/˘˘· |
| But when I looked behind, alas! | 9 | ····˘··˘/ |
| Not one of all the band could I see, | 9 | ········· |
| All had sunk in the black morass! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Where are our shallow fords? and where | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| The power of Kazan with its fourfold gates? | 10 | ·/·/˘··//· |
| From the prison windows our maidens fair | 10 | ··/˘/˘//˘· |
| Talk of us still through the iron grates. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| We cannot hear them; for horse and man | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Lie buried deep in the dark abyss! | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| Ah! the black day hath come down on Kazan! | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Ah! was ever a grief like this? | 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.