Hunting-Song: From "King Arthur"
Oh, who would stay indoor, indoor,When the horn is on the hill? (Bugle: Tarantara!With the crisp air stinging, and the huntsmen singing,And a ten-tined buck to kill!
Before the sun goes down, goes down,We shall slay the buck of ten; (Bugle: Tarantara!And the priest shall say benison, and we shall ha'e venison,When we come home again.
Let him that loves his ease, his ease,Keep close and house him fair; (Bugle: Tarantara!He'll still be a stranger to the merry thrill of dangerAnd the joy of the open air.
But he that loves the hills, the hills,Let him come out to-day! (Bugle: Tarantara!For the horses are neighing, and the hounds are baying,And the hunt's up, and away!
Words in this poem
- indoor a.
- Done or being within doors; within a house or institution; domestic; as, indoor work.
- 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,]
- benison n.
- Blessing; beatitude; benediction. [OE. beneysun, benesoun, OF. beneï, beneïson, fr. L. benedictio, fr. benedicere to bless; bene (adv. of bonus good) + dicere to say. See Bounty, and Diction, and]
- venison n.
- Beasts of the chase. Fabyan. [OE. veneison, veneson, venison, OF. veneison, F. venaison, L. venatio hunting, the chase, game, fr. venari, p. p. venatus, to hunt; perhaps akin to OHG. weidin,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hunting-Song: From "King Arthur" is in the public domain. This text is taken from More Songs From Vagabondia, Project Gutenberg ebook #18007; 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, Hunting-Song: From "King Arthur", in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/hunting-song-from-king-arthur.html, id L24726.
Form and metre
Hunting-Song: From "King Arthur" is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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.
- 2 A-AA downA · tarantara · venisonA · againA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, who would stay indoor, indoor, | 8 | ····/·/· |
| When the horn is on the hill? (Bugle: Tarantara! | 13 | ·······/˘···· |
| With the crisp air stinging, and the huntsmen singing, | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
| And a ten-tined buck to kill! | 8 | ····˘··· |
| Before the sun goes down, goes down, | 8 | ········ |
| We shall slay the buck of ten; (Bugle: Tarantara! | 13 | ·······/˘···· |
| And the priest shall say benison, and we shall ha'e venison, | 14 | ·····/˘˘····/˘ |
| When we come home again. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Let him that loves his ease, his ease, | 8 | ········ |
| Keep close and house him fair; (Bugle: Tarantara! | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| He'll still be a stranger to the merry thrill of danger | 14 | ····/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| And the joy of the open air. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But he that loves the hills, the hills, | 8 | ········ |
| Let him come out to-day! (Bugle: Tarantara! | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| For the horses are neighing, and the hounds are baying, | 13 | ··/˘·······/˘ |
| And the hunt's up, and away! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
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.