The Song of the Soldiers
As I sat musing by the frozen dyke,There was a man marching with a bright steel pike,Marching in the dayshine like a ghost came he,And behind me was the moaning and the murmurOf the sea.
As I sat musing, 'twas not one but ten ---Rank on rank of ghostly soldiers marching o'er the fen,Marching in the misty air they showed in dreams to me,And behind me was the shouting and the shatteringof the sea.
As I sat musing, 'twas a host in dark array,With their horses and their cannon wheeling onwardto the fray,Moving like a shadow to the fate the brave must dree,And behind me roared the drums, rang the trumpetsof the sea.
Words in this poem
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
- dree v. i.
- To be able to do or endure.
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Song of the Soldiers is in the public domain. This text is taken from Peacock Pie, a Book of Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #3753; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, The Song of the Soldiers, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/the-song-of-the-soldiers.html, id L12630.
Form and metre
The Song of the Soldiers is 16 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables. 4 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 trochaic hexameter.
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 AAB-B dykeA · pikeA · heB · murmur · seaB
- 2 AAB-B tenA · fenA · meB · shattering · seaB
- 3 A-AB-B arrayA · onward · frayA · dreeB · trumpets · seaB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| As I sat musing by the frozen dyke, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| There was a man marching with a bright steel pike, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Marching in the dayshine like a ghost came he, | 11 | /˘········· |
| And behind me was the moaning and the murmur | 12 | ······/˘··/˘ |
| Of the sea. | 3 | ··· |
| As I sat musing, 'twas not one but ten --- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Rank on rank of ghostly soldiers marching o'er the fen, | 13 | ····/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Marching in the misty air they showed in dreams to me, | 13 | /˘··/˘······· |
| And behind me was the shouting and the shattering | 12 | ······/˘··/˘ |
| of the sea. | 3 | ··· |
| As I sat musing, 'twas a host in dark array, | 12 | ···/˘·····˘/ |
| With their horses and their cannon wheeling onward | 12 | ··/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| to the fray, | 3 | ··· |
| Moving like a shadow to the fate the brave must dree, | 13 | /˘··/········ |
| And behind me roared the drums, rang the trumpets | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| of the sea. | 3 | ··· |
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.