Power of Love
Think not that my fancy comes from stubble under,No! 'twas born in lightning—no! 'tis heard in thunder;When a babe I drank the hot milk of the dragon,When a youth the blood of lions filled my flagon.
Wild and high its flight—that flight there's no restraining,Conquering land and land, and revelling and reigning;Now upon the sea in wildest exultation,Now twixt earth and heaven in comet-like vibration.
With a whirlwind's speed, the wilderness embracing,Glancing thro' the fields, among the forests racing;Rattling round the oak trees, pouring out the fountains,Raising up the valleys, bringing down the mountains.
Where is the wild horse so frenziedly that bore me?See, there stands a flower, a smiling flower before me;Like the exhausted gale, with evening's odour laden,So I stand subdued before that smiling maiden.
Words in this poem
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- flagon n.
- A vessel with a narrow mouth, used for holding and conveying liquors. It is generally larger than a bottle, and of leather or stoneware rather than of glass. [F. flacon, for flascon, fr. OF. flasche, from LL. flasco. See Flask.]
- glancing a.
- Shooting, as light.
- odour n.
- Any smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume. [OE. odor, odour, OF. odor, odour, F. odeur, fr. L. odor; akin to olere to smell, Gr. Olfactory, Osmium, Ozone, Redolent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Power of Love 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, Power of Love, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/power-of-love.html, id L29825.
Form and metre
Power of Love is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 AABB underA · thunderA · dragonB · flagonB
- 2 AABB restrainingA · reigningA · exultationB · vibrationB
- 3 AABB embracingA · racingA · fountainsB · mountainsB
- 4 AABB meA · meA · ladenB · maidenB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Think not that my fancy comes from stubble under, | 12 | ····/˘··/˘·· |
| No! 'twas born in lightning—no! 'tis heard in thunder; | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
| When a babe I drank the hot milk of the dragon, | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| When a youth the blood of lions filled my flagon. | 12 | ······/˘··/˘ |
| Wild and high its flight—that flight there's no restraining, | 12 | ·········˘/˘ |
| Conquering land and land, and revelling and reigning; | 13 | /˘˘····˘/˘·/˘ |
| Now upon the sea in wildest exultation, | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| Now twixt earth and heaven in comet-like vibration. | 13 | ····/˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| With a whirlwind's speed, the wilderness embracing, | 12 | ··/···/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Glancing thro' the fields, among the forests racing; | 12 | /˘······/˘/˘ |
| Rattling round the oak trees, pouring out the fountains, | 12 | /˘····/˘··/˘ |
| Raising up the valleys, bringing down the mountains. | 12 | /˘··/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Where is the wild horse so frenziedly that bore me? | 12 | ············ |
| See, there stands a flower, a smiling flower before me; | 12 | ····/·/˘/··· |
| Like the exhausted gale, with evening's odour laden, | 13 | ··˘/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| So I stand subdued before that smiling maiden. | 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.