To My Horse
Come, and be saddled, steed! I must be hieingTo my sweet love, for whom my soul is sighing;My foot is stirruped,—all thy strength is neededTo o'ertake my soul, which hath my steps preceded.
Lo! that wild bird, whose rapid flight is wingingTowards his dear mate, that waits him, sweetly singing;On, on my steed! outstrip that bird, swift-moving,—His loving is no stronger than my loving.
Words in this poem
- saddled a.
- Having a broad patch of color across the back, like a saddle; saddle-backed.
- steed n.
- A horse, especially a spirited horse for state of war; -- used chiefly in poetry or stately prose. [OE. stede, AS. steda a stud-horse, war horse, fr. stod a stud of breeding steeds; akin to G. stute a mare, Icel. stedda, sto, a stud. *163. See Stud of horses.]
- outstrip v. t.
- To go faster than; to outrun; to advance beyond; to leave behing.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To My Horse 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 My Horse, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/to-my-horse.html, id L29789.
Form and metre
To My Horse is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 hieingA · sighingA · neededB · precededB
- 2 AABB wingingA · singingA · movingB · lovingB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Come, and be saddled, steed! I must be hieing | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
| To my sweet love, for whom my soul is sighing; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| My foot is stirruped,—all thy strength is needed | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| To o'ertake my soul, which hath my steps preceded. | 12 | ·········˘/˘ |
| Lo! that wild bird, whose rapid flight is winging | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Towards his dear mate, that waits him, sweetly singing; | 12 | ········/˘/˘ |
| On, on my steed! outstrip that bird, swift-moving,— | 11 | ····˘/···/˘ |
| His loving is no stronger than my loving. | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
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.