The Snake-Charmer
Whither dost thou hide from the magic of my flute-call?In what moonlight-tangled meshes of perfume,Where the clustering keovas guard the squirrel's slumber,Where the deep woods glimmer with the jasmine's bloom?
I'll feed thee, O beloved, on milk and wild red honey,I'll bear thee in a basket of rushes, green and white,To a palace-bower where golden-vested maidensThread with mellow laughter the petals of delight.
Whither dost thou loiter, by what murmuring hollows,Where oleanders scatter their ambrosial fire?Come, thou subtle bride of my mellifluous wooing,Come, thou silver-breasted moonbeam of desire!
Words in this poem
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- ambrosial a.
- Consisting of, or partaking of the nature of, ambrosia; delighting the taste or smell; delicious.
- mellifluous a.
- Flowing as with honey; smooth; flowing sweetly or smoothly; as, a mellifluous voice. [L. mellifluus; mel, mellis, honey (akin to Gr. milip) + fluere to flow. See Mildew, Fluent, and cf. Marmalade.]
- moonbeam n.
- A ray of light from the moon.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Snake-Charmer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Golden Threshold, with an introduction by Arthur Symons (Hyderabad, 1905; London, John Lane, 1905), Project Gutenberg ebook #680; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sarojini Naidu, The Snake-Charmer, in The Golden Threshold (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #680, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-golden-threshold/the-snake-charmer.html, id L27479.
Form and metre
The Snake-Charmer is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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-A call · perfumeA · slumber · bloomA
- 2 -A-A honey · whiteA · maidens · delightA
- 3 -A-A hollows · fireA · wooing · desireA
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Whither dost thou hide from the magic of my flute-call? | 13 | /˘·····/˘···· |
| In what moonlight-tangled meshes of perfume, | 12 | ··/·/˘˘/˘·˘/ |
| Where the clustering keovas guard the squirrel's slumber, | 13 | ··/˘˘····/˘/˘ |
| Where the deep woods glimmer with the jasmine's bloom? | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| I'll feed thee, O beloved, on milk and wild red honey, | 13 | ····˘/·····/˘ |
| I'll bear thee in a basket of rushes, green and white, | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘··· |
| To a palace-bower where golden-vested maidens | 13 | ··/˘/˘·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Thread with mellow laughter the petals of delight. | 12 | ··/˘/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| Whither dost thou loiter, by what murmuring hollows, | 13 | /˘··/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| Where oleanders scatter their ambrosial fire? | 13 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Come, thou subtle bride of my mellifluous wooing, | 13 | ··/˘···˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Come, thou silver-breasted moonbeam of desire! | 12 | ··/˘/˘/··˘/˘ |
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.