The Nobleman
The Halunk is brought to the Derezs's side,And is paid for his songs by your blows;He cheated, he pilfered, he plundered, he lied—What more? Only Beelzebub knows.
He cries while you smite him, "Beware what you do!When the rights of a noble you scorn,You despise all the laws of Hungaria, when youLay stripes on a nobleman born."
A nobleman—true! I have made a mistakeIn my manner of dealing with thee,I well might have spared thee the stick or the stake,For the richly deserved gallows tree.
Words in this poem
- lied n.
- A lay; a German song. It differs from the French chanson, and the Italian canzone, all three being national. [G.]
- beelzebub n.
- The title of a heathen deity to whom the Jews ascribed the sovereignty of the evil spirits; hence, the Devil or a devil. See Baal.
- beware v. t.
- To avoid; to take care of; to have a care for.
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Nobleman 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 Nobleman, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/the-nobleman.html, id L29855.
Form and metre
The Nobleman is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is anapaestic common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in anapaestic common measure.
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 ABAB sideA · blowsB · liedA · knowsB
- 2 ABAB doA · scornB · youA · bornB
- 3 ABAB mistakeA · theeB · stakeA · treeB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Halunk is brought to the Derezs's side, | 10 | ·········· |
| And is paid for his songs by your blows; | 9 | ········· |
| He cheated, he pilfered, he plundered, he lied— | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| What more? Only Beelzebub knows. | 9 | ··/˘˘/˘˘· |
| He cries while you smite him, "Beware what you do! | 11 | ······˘/··· |
| When the rights of a noble you scorn, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| You despise all the laws of Hungaria, when you | 12 | ·˘/········· |
| Lay stripes on a nobleman born." | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| A nobleman—true! I have made a mistake | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| In my manner of dealing with thee, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
| I well might have spared thee the stick or the stake, | 11 | ··········· |
| For the richly deserved gallows tree. | 9 | ··/˘˘//˘· |
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.