Warrior
Earth upon the billet heap;So may a tyrant's heart be buried deep!The dark woods echoed to the long acclaim,Accursed be his nation and his name!
Earth upon the billet heap;So may a tyrant's heart be buried deep!The dark woods echoed to the long acclaim,Accursed be his nation and his name!
Cast in the lot.Again, with looks aghast,The captive in the trench a billet cast.Pronounce his name who here pollutes the plain,The leader of the mailed hosts of Spain!
Valdivia!Earth upon the billet heap;So may a tyrant's heart be buried deep!The dark woods echoed to the long acclaim,Accursed be his nation and his name!
And now loud yells, and whoops of death resound;The shuddering captive ghastly gazed around,When the huge war-club smote him to the ground.Again deep stillness hushed the listening crowd,While the prophetic wizard sang aloud.
Words in this poem
- billet n.
- A small paper; a note; a short letter. [F. billet, dim. of an OF. bille bill. See Bill a writing.]
- acclaim v. i.
- To shout applause.
- mailed a.
- Protected by an external coat, or covering, of scales or plates.
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Warrior 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, Warrior, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/warrior-2.html, id L10005.
Form and metre
Warrior is 23 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 87% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 AABB heapA · deepA · acclaimB · nameB
- 2 AABB heapA · deepA · acclaimB · nameB
- 3 -AABB lot · aghastA · castA · plainB · spainB
- 4 -AABB valdivia · heapA · deepA · acclaimB · nameB
- 5 AAABB resoundA · aroundA · groundA · crowdB · aloudB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earth upon the billet heap; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| So may a tyrant's heart be buried deep! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The dark woods echoed to the long acclaim, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Accursed be his nation and his name! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Earth upon the billet heap; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| So may a tyrant's heart be buried deep! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The dark woods echoed to the long acclaim, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Accursed be his nation and his name! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Cast in the lot. | 4 | ···· |
| Again, with looks aghast, | 6 | ˘/··˘/ |
| The captive in the trench a billet cast. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Pronounce his name who here pollutes the plain, | 10 | ˘/····˘/·· |
| The leader of the mailed hosts of Spain! | 10 | ·/˘···˘··· |
| Valdivia! | 4 | ˘/˘˘ |
| Earth upon the billet heap; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| So may a tyrant's heart be buried deep! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The dark woods echoed to the long acclaim, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Accursed be his nation and his name! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And now loud yells, and whoops of death resound; | 10 | ·········/ |
| The shuddering captive ghastly gazed around, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| When the huge war-club smote him to the ground. | 10 | ·········· |
| Again deep stillness hushed the listening crowd, | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| While the prophetic wizard sang aloud. | 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.