Analysis of The Siege Of Kazan. (Tartar Song, From The Prose Version Of Chodzko)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)



Black are the moors before Kazan,
And their stagnant waters smell of blood:
I said in my heart, with horse and man,
I will swim across this shallow flood.

Under the feet of Argamack,
Like new moons were the shoes he bare,
Silken trappings hung on his back,
In a talisman on his neck, a prayer.

My warriors, thought I, are following me;
But when I looked behind, alas!
Not one of all the band could I see,
All had sunk in the black morass!

Where are our shallow fords? and where
The power of Kazan with its fourfold gates?
From the prison windows our maidens fair
Talk of us still through the iron grates.

We cannot hear them; for horse and man
Lie buried deep in the dark abyss!
Ah! the black day hath come down on Kazan!
Ah! was ever a grief like this?


Scheme ABCB DEDE FGFG EHEH CIAI
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11010110 011010111 110111101 111011101 100111 11100111 10101111 0010011101 11001111001 11110101 111101111 11100101 111010101 01011011111 10101010101 111110101 110111101 110100101 1011111110 11100111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 761
Words 148
Sentences 13
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 116
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
148

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. more…

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    "The Siege Of Kazan. (Tartar Song, From The Prose Version Of Chodzko)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18913/the-siege-of-kazan.-%28tartar-song%2C-from-the-prose-version-of-chodzko%29>.

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