Analysis of Kalmuck Bride

Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)



I HAVE saddled your white steed, and I have burnished them-
Your belt with crystal clasps, your lance, your scimitar,
Your carbine silver-chased; now ere you mount and ride
Across the sky-wide steppe, a horseman to the war:

A promise make your bride: that at the self-same hour,
Whether you gallop on or halt in some wide mart,
You'll look up at the moon, so round, so full, so bright,
The almost moveless moon, with longing in your heart!

And I beside the tent will gaze and gaze and gaze
Upon the self-same moon that's like the looking-glass
You brought me from the fair of whitened Kadajah,
The present from your hand in which I saw my face.

(Shine, lance and scimitar, shine belt, and shine, carbine,
With magic of the moon I have endued your shine!)

Charmed by that double gaze, the moon that's won unto
The magic I contrive, will mirror my wan face,
And you will see above, so far, so still, so sad,
The daughter of the Khan who nightly seeks your gaze.


Scheme XAXA ABXB CXXD EE XDXC
Poetic Form
Metre 1110111011101 1111011111 11101111101 010111010101 0101111101110 101101110111 111101111111 0111110011 010101110101 010111110101 111101111 010111011111 110111011 110101110111 111101011110 010101110111 011101111111 010101110111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 951
Words 180
Sentences 5
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 2, 4
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 41
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 148
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

54 sec read
206

Padraic Colum

Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. more…

All Padraic Colum poems | Padraic Colum Books

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