The Betyar
The landlady smiled on the Betyar—but heNo charm in the landlady's smiling could see,For the landlady's pretty young daughter had givenA smile that was sweeter, a sunbeam of heaven.
The landlady riled with this scorn of her love,From her threshold the maid, in her jealousy, drove;In a cold biting winter compelled her to roam,And wandering she found neither shelter nor home.
She wandered, thro' storm and thro' snow, on the heath,And, wearied and wasted, was frozen to death;The Betyar he found her cold corpse, and he flewTo the inn, in his wrath, and the landlady slew.
He heard from the judge the death-dealing sentence,—No word of regret, no thought of repentance;He had lost all he cared for, and listened unmovedTo the mandate which sent him to her he had loved.
Words in this poem
- landlady n.
- A woman having real estate which she leases to a tenant or tenants. [Cf. Landlord.]
- sunbeam n.
- A beam or ray of the sun. [AS. sunnebeam.]
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
- corpse n.
- A human body in general, whether living or dead; -- sometimes contemptuosly. [OF. cors (sometimes written corps), F. corps, L. corpus; akin to AS. hrif womb. See Midriff, and cf. Corse, Corselet, Corps, Cuerpo.]
- unmoved a.
- Not moved; fixed; firm; unshaken; calm; apathetic.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Betyar 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, The Betyar, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/the-betyar.html, id L29794.
Form and metre
The Betyar is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic 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 AA-- heA · seeA · given · heaven
- 2 --AA love · drove · roamA · homeA
- 3 --AA heath · death · flewA · slewA
- 4 AA-- sentenceA · repentanceA · unmoved · loved
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The landlady smiled on the Betyar—but he | 11 | ·/·˘······· |
| No charm in the landlady's smiling could see, | 11 | ····/·˘/˘·· |
| For the landlady's pretty young daughter had given | 12 | ··/·˘/˘·/˘·/ |
| A smile that was sweeter, a sunbeam of heaven. | 12 | ····/˘·/··/˘ |
| The landlady riled with this scorn of her love, | 11 | ·/·˘······· |
| From her threshold the maid, in her jealousy, drove; | 11 | ··/·····/˘· |
| In a cold biting winter compelled her to roam, | 12 | ···/˘/˘˘/··· |
| And wandering she found neither shelter nor home. | 11 | ·/˘··/˘/˘·· |
| She wandered, thro' storm and thro' snow, on the heath, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| And, wearied and wasted, was frozen to death; | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| The Betyar he found her cold corpse, and he flew | 11 | ··········· |
| To the inn, in his wrath, and the landlady slew. | 12 | ········/·˘· |
| He heard from the judge the death-dealing sentence,— | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| No word of regret, no thought of repentance; | 11 | ···˘/···˘/˘ |
| He had lost all he cared for, and listened unmoved | 12 | ········/˘˘/ |
| To the mandate which sent him to her he had loved. | 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.