Indian
When, round and red, the moon shall next arise,The chiefs attend the midnight sacrificeIn Encol's wood, where the great wizard dwells,Who wakes the dead man by his thrilling spells;Thee, Ulmen of the Mountains, they commandTo lift the hatchet for thy native land;Whilst in dread circle, round the sere-wood smoke,The mighty gods of vengeance they invoke;And call the spirits of their fathers slain,To nerve their lifted arm, and curse devoted Spain.So spoke the scout of war;--and o'er the dew,Onward along the craggy valley, flew.Then the stern warrior sang his song of death--And blew his conch, that all the glens beneathEchoed, and rushing from the hollow wood,Soon at his side three hundred warriors stood.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- thrilling a.
- Causing a thrill; causing tremulous excitement; deeply moving; as, a thrilling romance.
- sere n.
- Claw; talon. Chapman. [F. serre.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Indian is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan, Project Gutenberg ebook #18915; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Lisle Bowles, Indian, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/indian.html, id L10000.
Form and metre
Indian is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 75% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 19% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 --AABBCCDDEE--FF arise · sacrifice · dwellsA · spellsA · commandB · landB · smokeC · invokeC · slainD · spainD · dewE · flewE · death · beneath · woodF · stoodF
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When, round and red, the moon shall next arise, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The chiefs attend the midnight sacrifice | 10 | ··˘/·/·/˘· |
| In Encol's wood, where the great wizard dwells, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Who wakes the dead man by his thrilling spells; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thee, Ulmen of the Mountains, they command | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| To lift the hatchet for thy native land; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Whilst in dread circle, round the sere-wood smoke, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The mighty gods of vengeance they invoke; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And call the spirits of their fathers slain, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To nerve their lifted arm, and curse devoted Spain. | 12 | ···/˘···˘/˘· |
| So spoke the scout of war;--and o'er the dew, | 10 | ·········· |
| Onward along the craggy valley, flew. | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Then the stern warrior sang his song of death-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And blew his conch, that all the glens beneath | 10 | ·········· |
| Echoed, and rushing from the hollow wood, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Soon at his side three hundred warriors stood. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
Notes from the edition 1
Bowles's own notes to his Poetical Works (Project Gutenberg #18915).
- Line 5 Ulmen is the same as Casique, or chief.
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.