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Marching Along

AABBCC · 25 lines · from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning

Kentish Sir Byng stood for his King,Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing;And, pressing a troop unable to stoopAnd see the rogues nourish and honest folk droop,Marched them along, fifty-score strong,Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song:

God for King Charles! Pym and such carlesTo the Devil that prompts 'em their treasonous parles!Cavaliers, up! Lips from the cup,Hands from the pasty, nor bite take nor sup.Till you're--CHORUS.--Marching along, fifty-score strong,Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song.

Hampden to hell, and his obsequies' knellServe Hazelrig, Fiennes, and young Harry as well!England, good cheer! Rupert is near!Kentish and loyalists, keep we not here,CHORUS.--Marching along, fifty-score strong,Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song?

Then, God for King Charles! Pym and his snarlsTo the Devil that pricks on such pestilent carles!Hold by the right, you double your might;So, onward to Nottingham, fresh for the fight.CHORUS.--March we along, fifty-score strong,Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song!

Words in this poem

parliament n.: A parleying; a discussion; a conference. [OE. parlement, F. parlement, fr. parler to speak; cf. LL. parlamentum, parliamentum. See Parley.]
folk n.: In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
harry v. i.: To make a predatory incursion; to plunder or lay waste.
pestilent a.: Pestilential; noxious; pernicious; mischievous. [L. pestilens, -entis, fr. pestis pest: cf. F. pestilent.]

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

About this text

Marching Along 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, Marching Along, in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/marching-along.html, id L25077.

Form and metre

Marching Along is 25 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABBCC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas.

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 king^A · swing^A · stoop^B · droop^B · strong^C · song^C
2 AABB-CC carles^A · parles^A · cup^B · sup^B · you're · strong^C · song^C
3 AABBCC knell^A · well^A · near^B · here^B · strong^C · song^C
4 AABBCC snarls^A · carles^A · might^B · fight^B · strong^C · song^C

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
Kentish Sir Byng stood for his King,	8	········
Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing;	10	/˘··/˘/˘˘·
And, pressing a troop unable to stoop	10	·/˘··˘/˘··
And see the rogues nourish and honest folk droop,	11	····/˘·/˘··
Marched them along, fifty-score strong,	9	·˘·˘//˘··
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song:	10	·/˘/˘˘/˘··
God for King Charles! Pym and such carles	8	········
To the Devil that prompts 'em their treasonous parles!	11	··/····/˘˘·
Cavaliers, up! Lips from the cup,	8	·˘/·····
Hands from the pasty, nor bite take nor sup.	10	···/˘·····
Till you're--	2	··
CHORUS.--Marching along, fifty-score strong,	10	/˘/˘˘//˘··
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song.	10	·/˘/˘˘/˘··
Hampden to hell, and his obsequies' knell	10	······/˘˘·
Serve Hazelrig, Fiennes, and young Harry as well!	13	····˘/˘··/˘··
England, good cheer! Rupert is near!	8	/˘··/˘··
Kentish and loyalists, keep we not here,	10	···/˘˘····
CHORUS.--Marching along, fifty-score strong,	10	/˘/˘˘//˘··
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song?	10	·/˘/˘˘/˘··
Then, God for King Charles! Pym and his snarls	9	·········
To the Devil that pricks on such pestilent carles!	11	··/····/˘˘·
Hold by the right, you double your might;	9	·····/˘··
So, onward to Nottingham, fresh for the fight.	11	·/˘·/˘·····
CHORUS.--March we along, fifty-score strong,	10	/˘··˘//˘··
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song!	10	·/˘/˘˘/˘··

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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