Seventy-Six
What heroes from the woodland sprung,When, through the fresh awakened land,The thrilling cry of freedom rung,And to the work of warfare strungThe yeoman's iron hand!
Hills flung the cry to hills around,And ocean-mart replied to mart,And streams whose springs were yet unfound,Pealed far away the startling soundInto the forest's heart.
Then marched the brave from rocky steep,From mountain river swift and cold;The borders of the stormy deep,The vales where gathered waters sleep,Sent up the strong and bold,--
As if the very earth againGrew quick with God's creating breath,And, from the sods of grove and glen,Rose ranks of lion-hearted menTo battle to the death.
The wife, whose babe first smiled that day,The fair fond bride of yestereve,And aged sire and matron gray,Saw the loved warriors haste away,And deemed it sin to grieve.
Already had the strife begun;Already blood on Concord's plainAlong the springing grass had run,And blood had flowed at Lexington,Like brooks of April rain.
That death-stain on the vernal swardHallowed to freedom all the shore;In fragments fell the yoke abhorred--The footstep of a foreign lordProfaned the soil no more.
Words in this poem
- thrilling a.
- Causing a thrill; causing tremulous excitement; deeply moving; as, a thrilling romance.
- rung n.
- A floor timber in a ship. [OE. ronge, AS. hrung, a staff, rod, pole; akin to G. runge a short, thick piece of iron or wood, OD. ronghe a prop, support, Icel. röng a rib in a ship, Goth. H]
- mart v. t.
- To buy or sell in, or as in, a mart.
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- yestereve n.
- The evening of yesterday; the evening last past.
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Seventy-Six is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by William Cullen Bryant, Project Gutenberg ebook #16341; 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 Cullen Bryant, Seventy-Six, in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/seventy-six.html, id L07344.
Form and metre
Seventy-Six is 35 lines in 7 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 ABAAB sprungA · landB · rungA · strungA · handB
- 2 ABAAB aroundA · martB · unfoundA · soundA · heartB
- 3 ABAAB steepA · coldB · deepA · sleepA · boldB
- 4 ABAAB againA · breathB · glenA · menA · deathB
- 5 ABAAB dayA · yestereveB · grayA · awayA · grieveB
- 6 ABAAB begunA · plainB · runA · lexingtonA · rainB
- 7 ABAAB swardA · shoreB · abhorredA · lordA · moreB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| What heroes from the woodland sprung, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| When, through the fresh awakened land, | 9 | ····˘/˘˘· |
| The thrilling cry of freedom rung, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And to the work of warfare strung | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The yeoman's iron hand! | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Hills flung the cry to hills around, | 8 | ········ |
| And ocean-mart replied to mart, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| And streams whose springs were yet unfound, | 8 | ········ |
| Pealed far away the startling sound | 9 | ·˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Into the forest's heart. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Then marched the brave from rocky steep, | 9 | ··˘···/˘· |
| From mountain river swift and cold; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The borders of the stormy deep, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The vales where gathered waters sleep, | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘· |
| Sent up the strong and bold,-- | 6 | ······ |
| As if the very earth again | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Grew quick with God's creating breath, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And, from the sods of grove and glen, | 8 | ········ |
| Rose ranks of lion-hearted men | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To battle to the death. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The wife, whose babe first smiled that day, | 9 | ······˘·· |
| The fair fond bride of yestereve, | 8 | ········ |
| And aged sire and matron gray, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Saw the loved warriors haste away, | 10 | ···˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| And deemed it sin to grieve. | 6 | ······ |
| Already had the strife begun; | 8 | ˘/˘···˘/ |
| Already blood on Concord's plain | 8 | ˘/˘··/·· |
| Along the springing grass had run, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| And blood had flowed at Lexington, | 9 | ····˘·/˘˘ |
| Like brooks of April rain. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That death-stain on the vernal sward | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Hallowed to freedom all the shore; | 9 | /˘˘·/˘··· |
| In fragments fell the yoke abhorred-- | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| The footstep of a foreign lord | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Profaned the soil no more. | 6 | ˘/···· |
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.