In the Day of Battle
In the day of battle,In the night of dread,Let one hymn be lifted,Let one prayer be said.
Not for pride of conquest,Not for vengeance wrought,Nor for peace and safetyWith dishonour bought!
Praise for faith in freedom,Our fighting fathers' stay,Born of dreams and daring,Bred above dismay.
Prayer for cloudless vision,And the valiant hand,That the right may triumphTo the last demand.
Words in this poem
- dishonour n.
- Lack of honor; disgrace; ignominy; shame; reproach. [OE. deshonour, dishonour, OF. deshonor, deshonur, F. déshonneur; pref. des- (L. dis-) + honor, honur, F. honneur, fr. L. honor. See Honor.]
- cloudless a.
- Without a cloud; clear; bright.
- valiant a.
- Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In the Day of Battle is in the public domain. This text is taken from Later Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #33417; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, In the Day of Battle, in Later Poems (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #33417, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-later-poems/in-the-day-of-battle.html, id L10988.
Form and metre
In the Day of Battle is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.6 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 battle · dreadA · liftedA · saidA
- 2 -A-A conquest · wroughtA · safety · boughtA
- 3 -A-A freedom · stayA · daring · dismayA
- 4 -A-A vision · handA · triumph · demandA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In the day of battle, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| In the night of dread, | 5 | ····· |
| Let one hymn be lifted, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Let one prayer be said. | 5 | ····· |
| Not for pride of conquest, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Not for vengeance wrought, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Nor for peace and safety | 6 | ····/˘ |
| With dishonour bought! | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| Praise for faith in freedom, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Our fighting fathers' stay, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Born of dreams and daring, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Bred above dismay. | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Prayer for cloudless vision, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| And the valiant hand, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| That the right may triumph | 6 | ····/˘ |
| To the last demand. | 5 | ···˘/ |
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.