Hymn of the Puritans
Arm me, Lord, my strength redouble,Heaven open, heed my trouble!God, if my cause Thine shall be,Grant a day of victory!Fell all Thy foes now!Fell all Thy foes now!Roll forth Thy thunders, Thy lightning affright them,Into the pit, the bottomless, smite them,Their seed uproot,Tread under foot!Send then Thy snowy white dove peace-bringing,Unto Thy faithful Thy token winging,Olive-branch fair of Thy summer's fruitionAfter the deluge of sin's punition!
Words in this poem
- redouble v. t.
- To double again or repeatedly; to increase by continued or repeated additions; to augment greatly; to multiply. [Pref. re- + double: cf. F. redoubler. Cf. Reduplicate.]
- 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,]
- uproot v. t.
- To root up; to tear up by the roots, or as if by the roots; to remove utterly; to eradicate; to extirpate.
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- fruition n.
- Use or possession of anything, especially such as is accompanied with pleasure or satisfaction; pleasure derived from possession or use. [OF. fruition, L. fruitio, enjoyment, fr. L. frui, p. p. fruitus, to use or enjoy. See Fruit, n.]
- punition n.
- Punishment. Mir. for Mag. [L. punitio: cf. F. punition. See Punish.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hymn of the Puritans is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, the Arthur Hubbell Palmer 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: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Hymn of the Puritans, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/hymn-of-the-puritans.html, id L29281.
Form and metre
Hymn of the Puritans is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG redoubleA · troubleA · beB · victoryB · nowC · nowC · themD · themD · uprootE · footE · bringingF · wingingF · fruitionG · punitionG
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.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Arm me, Lord, my strength redouble, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Heaven open, heed my trouble! | 8 | /˘/˘··/˘ |
| God, if my cause Thine shall be, | 7 | ······· |
| Grant a day of victory! | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Fell all Thy foes now! | 5 | ····· |
| Fell all Thy foes now! | 5 | ····· |
| Roll forth Thy thunders, Thy lightning affright them, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘˘/· |
| Into the pit, the bottomless, smite them, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Their seed uproot, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Tread under foot! | 4 | ···· |
| Send then Thy snowy white dove peace-bringing, | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| Unto Thy faithful Thy token winging, | 10 | ···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Olive-branch fair of Thy summer's fruition | 11 | /˘····/˘˘/˘ |
| After the deluge of sin's punition! | 10 | ···/˘··˘/˘ |
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.