The Green Mountain Boys
Here we halt our march, and pitch our tentOn the rugged forest ground,And light our fire with the branches rentBy winds from the beeches round.Wild storms have torn this ancient wood,But a wilder is at hand,With hail of iron and rain of blood,To sweep and waste the land.
How the dark wood rings with voices shrill,That startle the sleeping bird;To-morrow eve must the voice be still,And the step must fall unheard.The Briton lies by the blue Champlain,In Ticonderoga's towers,And ere the sun rise twice again,The towers and the lake are ours.
Fill up the bowl from the brook that glidesWhere the fireflies light the brake;A ruddier juice the Briton hidesIn his fortress by the lake.Build high the fire, till the panther leapFrom his lofty perch in flight,And we'll strenghten our weary arms with sleepFor the deeds of to-morrow night.
Words in this poem
- unheard a.
- Not heard; not perceived by the ear; as, words unheard by those present.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Green Mountain Boys 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, The Green Mountain Boys, in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/the-green-mountain-boys.html, id L07350.
Form and metre
The Green Mountain Boys is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 ABABCDCD tentA · groundB · rentA · roundB · woodC · handD · bloodC · landD
- 2 ABABCDCD shrillA · birdB · stillA · unheardB · champlainC · towersD · againC · oursD
- 3 ABABCDCD glidesA · brakeB · hidesA · lakeB · leapC · flightD · sleepC · nightD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here we halt our march, and pitch our tent | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| On the rugged forest ground, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| And light our fire with the branches rent | 10 | ··//˘··/˘· |
| By winds from the beeches round. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Wild storms have torn this ancient wood, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But a wilder is at hand, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| With hail of iron and rain of blood, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| To sweep and waste the land. | 6 | ······ |
| How the dark wood rings with voices shrill, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| That startle the sleeping bird; | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| To-morrow eve must the voice be still, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And the step must fall unheard. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| The Briton lies by the blue Champlain, | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| In Ticonderoga's towers, | 8 | ·˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| And ere the sun rise twice again, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The towers and the lake are ours. | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Fill up the bowl from the brook that glides | 9 | ········· |
| Where the fireflies light the brake; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| A ruddier juice the Briton hides | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In his fortress by the lake. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Build high the fire, till the panther leap | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| From his lofty perch in flight, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And we'll strenghten our weary arms with sleep | 10 | ····//˘··· |
| For the deeds of to-morrow night. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
On this poem
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.