To an Unjust Judge
Gibes and jests are little meetFor the solemn judgment seat!He should speak with bated breath,Who deals out the doom of death.
Hush! he heareth. Break the plateInto potsherds—death his fate;Lead the youth to meet his doom—To the headsman—to the tomb.
At the uprising of the sunFalls the head to earth—'tis done—And a purple stream of goreSpouts upon th' ensanguined floor.
Moonlight came—the victim stoodStately in the solitude—He, who 'neath the gallows treeWas that morning buried—he!
And the head—his right-hand thereHeld by the entangled hair;In the darkness, through the street,Stalked—the unjust judge to meet.
"Instrument of perjury!Guiltless thou did'st sentence me!"So in shrieks the spectre spoke,And the unjust judge awoke.
Conscience—never felt beforeDrove him trembling to the door;There the ghastly spectre stood,Holding up the head of blood.
All bewildered, back he fled,Hid him in his restless bed;But the voice he nightly hears,And the bloody head appears.
Words in this poem
- bated a.
- Reduced; lowered; restrained; as, to speak with bated breath.
- headsman
- An executioner who cuts off heads.
- uprising n.
- Act of rising; also, a steep place; an ascent.
- guiltless a.
- Free from guilt; innocent.
- spectre n.
- Something preternaturally visible; an apparition; a ghost; a phantom. [F. spectre, fr. L. spectrum an appearance, image, specter, fr. specere to look. See Spy, and cf. Spectrum.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
- 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.]
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To an Unjust Judge 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, To an Unjust Judge, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/to-an-unjust-judge.html, id L29795.
Form and metre
To an Unjust Judge is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. 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 AABB meetA · seatA · breathB · deathB
- 2 AABB plateA · fateA · doomB · tombB
- 3 AABB sunA · doneA · goreB · floorB
- 4 AABB stoodA · solitudeA · treeB · heB
- 5 AABB thereA · hairA · streetB · meetB
- 6 AABB perjuryA · meA · spokeB · awokeB
- 7 AABB beforeA · doorA · stoodB · bloodB
- 8 AABB fledA · bedA · hearsB · appearsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gibes and jests are little meet | 7 | ····/˘· |
| For the solemn judgment seat! | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| He should speak with bated breath, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Who deals out the doom of death. | 7 | ······· |
| Hush! he heareth. Break the plate | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Into potsherds—death his fate; | 7 | ······· |
| Lead the youth to meet his doom— | 7 | ······· |
| To the headsman—to the tomb. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| At the uprising of the sun | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Falls the head to earth—'tis done— | 7 | ······· |
| And a purple stream of gore | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Spouts upon th' ensanguined floor. | 8 | ······˘· |
| Moonlight came—the victim stood | 7 | /···/˘· |
| Stately in the solitude— | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| He, who 'neath the gallows tree | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Was that morning buried—he! | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| And the head—his right-hand there | 7 | ······· |
| Held by the entangled hair; | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| In the darkness, through the street, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Stalked—the unjust judge to meet. | 8 | ·˘·˘/··· |
| "Instrument of perjury! | 7 | /˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Guiltless thou did'st sentence me!" | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| So in shrieks the spectre spoke, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the unjust judge awoke. | 7 | ··˘/·˘/ |
| Conscience—never felt before | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Drove him trembling to the door; | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| There the ghastly spectre stood, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Holding up the head of blood. | 7 | /˘····· |
| All bewildered, back he fled, | 8 | ·˘/˘˘··· |
| Hid him in his restless bed; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But the voice he nightly hears, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the bloody head appears. | 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.