To fight aloud is very brave
To fight aloud is very brave,But gallanter, I know,Who charge within the bosom,The cavalry of woe.
Who win, and nations do not see,Who fall, and none observe,Whose dying eyes no countryRegards with patriot love.
We trust, in plumed procession,For such the angels go,Rank after rank, with even feetAnd uniforms of snow.
Words in this poem
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To fight aloud is very brave is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, To fight aloud is very brave, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/to-fight-aloud-is-very-brave.html, id L18890.
Form and metre
To fight aloud is very brave is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A brave · knowA · bosom · woeA
- 3 -A-A procession · goA · feet · snowA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| To fight aloud is very brave, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| But gallanter, I know, | 6 | ······ |
| Who charge within the bosom, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The cavalry of woe. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Who win, and nations do not see, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Who fall, and none observe, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Whose dying eyes no country | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Regards with patriot love. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| We trust, in plumed procession, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| For such the angels go, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Rank after rank, with even feet | 7 | ·····/· |
| And uniforms of snow. | 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.