Thy Days Are Done
Thy days are done, thy fame begun;Thy country's strains recordThe triumphs of her chosen Son,The slaughters of his sword!The deeds he did, the fields he won,The freedom he restored!
Though thou art fall'n, while we are freeThou shall not taste of death!The generous blood that flowed from theeDisdained to sink beneath:Within our veins its currents be,Thy spirit on our breath!
Thy name, our charging hosts along,Shall be the battle-word!Thy fall, the theme of choral songFrom virgin voices poured!To weep would do thy glory wrong:Thou shalt not be deplored.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
- choral a.
- Of or pertaining to a choir or chorus; singing, sung, or adapted to be sung, in chorus or harmony. Choral service, a service of song. [LL. choralis, fr. L. chorus. See Chorus.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Thy Days Are Done is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 3, Project Gutenberg ebook #21811; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lord Byron, Thy Days Are Done, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/thy-days-are-done.html, id L23949.
Form and metre
Thy Days Are Done is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABABAB begunA · recordB · sonA · swordB · wonA · restoredB
- 2 ABA-AB freeA · deathB · theeA · beneath · beA · breathB
- 3 A-ABAB alongA · word · songA · pouredB · wrongA · deploredB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thy days are done, thy fame begun; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Thy country's strains record | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The triumphs of her chosen Son, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The slaughters of his sword! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The deeds he did, the fields he won, | 8 | ········ |
| The freedom he restored! | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Though thou art fall'n, while we are free | 8 | ········ |
| Thou shall not taste of death! | 6 | ······ |
| The generous blood that flowed from thee | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Disdained to sink beneath: | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Within our veins its currents be, | 8 | ··/··/˘· |
| Thy spirit on our breath! | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Thy name, our charging hosts along, | 8 | ··//˘·˘/ |
| Shall be the battle-word! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thy fall, the theme of choral song | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From virgin voices poured! | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| To weep would do thy glory wrong: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thou shalt not be deplored. | 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.