Tartar Song II

Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837) · 1849

Mostly iambic tetrameter · ABAB · 4 lines · from The Bakchesarian Fountain and Other Poems

Blest he who sees pale Death await himOn Danube's ever glorious shore;The girls of Paradise shall greet him,And sorrows ne'er afflict him more.

Words in this poem

await v. t.
To watch for; to look out for. [OF. awaitier, agaitier; (L. ad) + waitier, gaitier to watch, F. guetter. See Wait.]
glorious a.
Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
shall v. i.
To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
afflict v. t.
To strike or cast down; to overthrow. [L. afflictus, p. p. of affigere to cast down, deject; ad + fligere to strike: cf. OF. aflit, afflict, p. p. Cf. Flagellate.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Tartar Song II is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bakchesarian Fountain and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8192; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Alexander Pushkin, Tartar Song II, in The Bakchesarian Fountain and Other Poems (1849), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8192, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pushkin-bakchesarian/tartar-song-ii.html, id L25556.

Form and metre

Tartar Song II is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB.

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. 1 ABAB himA · shoreB · himA · moreB
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. How this is done.

LineSyl.Stress
Blest he who sees pale Death await him9······˘/·
On Danube's ever glorious shore;8·/˘//˘˘·
The girls of Paradise shall greet him,9···/˘····
And sorrows ne'er afflict him more.8·/˘·˘/··

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.

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