The Rebel
There is a wall of which the stonesAre lies and bribes and dead men’s bones.And wrongfully this evil wallDenies what all men made for all,And shamelessly this wall surroundsOur homesteads and our native grounds.
But I will gather and I will ride,And I will summon a countryside,And many a man shall hear my halloaWho never had thought the horn to follow;And many a man shall ride with meWho never had thought on earth to seeHigh Justice in her armoury.
When we find them where they stand,A mile of men on either hand,I mean to charge from right awayAnd force the flanks of their array,And press them inward from the plains,And drive them clamouring down the lanes,And gallop and harry and have them down,And carry the gates and hold the town.Then shall I rest me from my rideWith my great anger satisfied.
Only, before I eat and drink,When I have killed them all, I thinkThat I will batter their carven names,And slit the pictures in their frames,And burn for scent their cedar door,And melt the gold their women wore,And hack their horses at the knees,And hew to death their timber trees,And plough their gardens deep and through--And all these things I mean to doFor fear perhaps my little sonShould break his hands, as I have done.
Words in this poem
- countryside n.
- A particular rural district; a country neighborhood. [Eng.] W.
- 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,]
- harry v. i.
- To make a predatory incursion; to plunder or lay waste.
- carven a.
- Wrought by carving; ornamented by carvings; carved.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Rebel is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #60663; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Hilaire Belloc, The Rebel, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/the-rebel.html, id L21657.
Form and metre
The Rebel is 35 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 91% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic 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 AABBCC stonesA · bonesA · wallB · allB · surroundsC · groundsC
- 2 AA--BB- rideA · countrysideA · halloa · follow · meB · seeB · armoury
- 3 AABBCCDDEE standA · handA · awayB · arrayB · plainsC · lanesC · downD · townD · rideE · satisfiedE
- 4 AABBCCDDEEFF drinkA · thinkA · namesB · framesB · doorC · woreC · kneesD · treesD · throughE · doE · sonF · doneF
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There is a wall of which the stones | 8 | ········ |
| Are lies and bribes and dead men’s bones. | 8 | ········ |
| And wrongfully this evil wall | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Denies what all men made for all, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| And shamelessly this wall surrounds | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| Our homesteads and our native grounds. | 8 | //··//˘· |
| But I will gather and I will ride, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And I will summon a countryside, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| And many a man shall hear my halloa | 9 | ·/·····˘/ |
| Who never had thought the horn to follow; | 9 | ·/·····/˘ |
| And many a man shall ride with me | 8 | ·/······ |
| Who never had thought on earth to see | 8 | ·/······ |
| High Justice in her armoury. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When we find them where they stand, | 7 | ······· |
| A mile of men on either hand, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I mean to charge from right away | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And force the flanks of their array, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And press them inward from the plains, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And drive them clamouring down the lanes, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And gallop and harry and have them down, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| And carry the gates and hold the town. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Then shall I rest me from my ride | 8 | ········ |
| With my great anger satisfied. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Only, before I eat and drink, | 8 | /˘······ |
| When I have killed them all, I think | 8 | ········ |
| That I will batter their carven names, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| And slit the pictures in their frames, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And burn for scent their cedar door, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And melt the gold their women wore, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And hack their horses at the knees, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And hew to death their timber trees, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And plough their gardens deep and through-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And all these things I mean to do | 8 | ········ |
| For fear perhaps my little son | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Should break his hands, as I have done. | 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.