Marriage Day
On thy finger, on thy fingerI have placed the wedding ring:Now, my wife! thy kisses bring me—Floods of hallowed kisses bring!
Kisses warm as are the sunbeams,Heaven has sanctified the kiss!Earth among its many blisses—Bliss has none so sweet as this.
Our's be heartful, joyful dalliance;Press thy rosy lips to mine!What care we for world, or worldlings?Mine thou art, and I am thine!
I will kiss thy lips, thy forehead,—Red as light, and white as snow!Shadowing kisses shall protect thee,As the mists the mountain brow.
But I faint, dear maid! support meIn those circling arms of thine;Has the kiss o'erwhelmed my reason,Like intoxicating wine?
'Tis a wine intoxicating,Like the nectar of the gods;I have drunk it, love hath brought itDown from heaven to man's abodes.
Yes! my head with bliss is drunken!Wondrous drunkenness is this,For from earth I am transportedInto heaven's own paradise.
O'er the clouds, amidst the planets;Star to star, and as I sailEverywhere sweet voices hail me,Sweet as songs of nightingale.
But with a diviner singing;Never such blest sounds I heard:Lightning circles, seas of glory,My celestial pathway gird.
And my heart—O how it fluttersOn that gently-heaving breast;Let it not with joy be burstingIn an extasy so blest!
Words in this poem
- sanctified a.
- Made holy; also, made to have the air of sanctity; sanctimonious.
- dalliance n.
- The act of dallying, trifling, or fondling; interchange of caresses; wanton play. [From Dally.]
- shadowing n.
- Shade, or gradation of light and color; shading. Feltham.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Marriage Day is in the public domain. This text is taken from Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet, by Sir John Bowring (London: Trübner & Co., 1866), Internet Archive, the John Bowring 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: Sándor Petőfi, Marriage Day, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/marriage-day.html, id L29829.
Form and metre
Marriage Day is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in trochaic 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-A finger · ringA · me · bringA
- 2 -A-A sunbeams · kissA · blisses · thisA
- 3 -A-A dalliance · mineA · worldlings · thineA
- 5 -AAA me · thineA · reasonA · wineA
- 8 -A-A planets · sailA · me · nightingaleA
- 9 -A-A singing · heardA · glory · girdA
- 10 -A-A flutters · breastA · bursting · blestA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| On thy finger, on thy finger | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| I have placed the wedding ring: | 8 | ···˘·/˘· |
| Now, my wife! thy kisses bring me— | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Floods of hallowed kisses bring! | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Kisses warm as are the sunbeams, | 8 | /˘····/· |
| Heaven has sanctified the kiss! | 8 | /˘·/˘˘·· |
| Earth among its many blisses— | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Bliss has none so sweet as this. | 7 | ······· |
| Our's be heartful, joyful dalliance; | 9 | /···/˘/˘˘ |
| Press thy rosy lips to mine! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| What care we for world, or worldlings? | 8 | ········ |
| Mine thou art, and I am thine! | 7 | ······· |
| I will kiss thy lips, thy forehead,— | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Red as light, and white as snow! | 7 | ······· |
| Shadowing kisses shall protect thee, | 8 | /˘/˘·˘/· |
| As the mists the mountain brow. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But I faint, dear maid! support me | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| In those circling arms of thine; | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Has the kiss o'erwhelmed my reason, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Like intoxicating wine? | 7 | ·˘/˘·˘· |
| 'Tis a wine intoxicating, | 8 | ···˘/˘·˘ |
| Like the nectar of the gods; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I have drunk it, love hath brought it | 8 | ········ |
| Down from heaven to man's abodes. | 8 | ··/˘··˘/ |
| Yes! my head with bliss is drunken! | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Wondrous drunkenness is this, | 7 | /˘/˘˘·· |
| For from earth I am transported | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Into heaven's own paradise. | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| O'er the clouds, amidst the planets; | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| Star to star, and as I sail | 7 | ······· |
| Everywhere sweet voices hail me, | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
| Sweet as songs of nightingale. | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| But with a diviner singing; | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| Never such blest sounds I heard: | 7 | /˘····· |
| Lightning circles, seas of glory, | 8 | /˘/˘··/˘ |
| My celestial pathway gird. | 7 | ·˘/˘/·· |
| And my heart—O how it flutters | 8 | ······/˘ |
| On that gently-heaving breast; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Let it not with joy be bursting | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In an extasy so blest! | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
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.