Rhapsodies
I cannot chain my fancy,'Tis stronger than my will,'Twould wreath my brow with star-light,Struggling and soaring still.Could it but reach the limitsWhich bind this earthly sphere,'Twould launch a new creationOf suns and planets there.
About this text
Rhapsodies 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, Rhapsodies, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/rhapsodies.html, id L29834.
Form and metre
Rhapsodies is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See 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 -A-A-B-B fancy · willA · light · stillA · limits · sphereB · creation · thereB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I cannot chain my fancy, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| 'Tis stronger than my will, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| 'Twould wreath my brow with star-light, | 7 | ······· |
| Struggling and soaring still. | 7 | /˘˘·/˘· |
| Could it but reach the limits | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Which bind this earthly sphere, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| 'Twould launch a new creation | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Of suns and planets there. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.