Laurel · Robert Browning · Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning

Give a Rouse

trochaic tetrameter · 20 lines · from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning

King Charles, and who'll do him right now?King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now?Give a rouse; here's, in hell's despite now,King Charles!

Who gave me the goods that went since?Who raised me the house that sank once?Who helped me to gold I spent since?Who found me in wine you drank once?King Charles, and who'll do him right now?King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now?Give a rouse; here's, in hell's despite now,King Charles!

To whom used my boy George quaff else,By the old fool's side that begot him?For whom did he cheer and laugh else,While Noll's damned troopers shot him?King Charles, and who'll do him right now?King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now?Give a rouse; here's, in hell's despite now,King Charles!

Words in this poem

went n.: Course; way; path; journey; direction.
drank n.: Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
quaff v. t.: To drink with relish; to drink copiously of; to swallow in large draughts. [For quach, fr. Gael. & Ir. cuach a drinking cup; cf. L. caucus a drinking vessel. Cf. Quaigh.]
damned a.: Sentenced to punishment in a future state; condemned; consigned to perdition.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Give a Rouse is in the public domain. This text is taken from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning, Project Gutenberg ebook #28041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Robert Browning, Give a Rouse, in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/give-a-rouse.html, id L25078.

Form and metre

Give a Rouse is 20 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).

See other poems in trochaic 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 AAA- now^A · now^A · now^A · charles
2 ABABCCC- since^A · once^B · since^A · once^B · now^C · now^C · now^C · charles
3 ABABCCC- else^A · him^B · else^A · him^B · now^C · now^C · now^C · charles

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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
King Charles, and who'll do him right now?	8	········
King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now?	8	········
Give a rouse; here's, in hell's despite now,	9	······˘/·
King Charles!	2	··
Who gave me the goods that went since?	8	········
Who raised me the house that sank once?	8	········
Who helped me to gold I spent since?	8	········
Who found me in wine you drank once?	8	········
King Charles, and who'll do him right now?	8	········
King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now?	8	········
Give a rouse; here's, in hell's despite now,	9	······˘/·
King Charles!	2	··
To whom used my boy George quaff else,	8	········
By the old fool's side that begot him?	9	······˘/·
For whom did he cheer and laugh else,	8	········
While Noll's damned troopers shot him?	8	···˘/˘··
King Charles, and who'll do him right now?	8	········
King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now?	8	········
Give a rouse; here's, in hell's despite now,	9	······˘/·
King Charles!	2	··

On this poem

These three, stirring songs represent the gay, reckless loyalty of the Cavaliers to the cause of King Charles I and their contempt for his Puritan opposers. The Puritans wore closely cropped hair; hence the Parliament which came together in 1640 and was controlled by the opponents of the King, is dubbed "crop-headed." John Pym and John Hampden were leaders in the struggle against the tyranny of the King. Hazelrig, Fiennes, and young Sir Henry Vane were also adherents of Oliver Cromwell. Rupert, Prince of the Palatinate, was a nephew of Charles I and was a noted cavalry leader on the royal side during the Civil War. The followers of the King unfurled the royal standard at Nottingham in August, 1642; Kentish Sir Byng raised a troop and hurried on to join the main royal army. In September occurred the battle of Edgehill. The "Noll" (l. 16 of "Give a Rouse") is Oliver Cromwell. The third song was entitled originally "My Wife Gertrude." It was she who held the castle of Brancepeth against the Roundheads.

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.

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