The Trojan Women, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, April 1918
Shades, that our town-fellows have comeTo hear rewake for ChristendomThis cleansing of a Pagan wrongIn flowing tides of tragic song,--You shadows that the living callTo walk again the Trojan wall,--You lips and countenance renewedOf an immortal fortitude,--Know that, among the silent rowsOf these our daily town-fellows,Watching the shades with these who bringBut mortal ears to this you sing,There somewhere sits the Greek who madeThis gift of song, himself a shade.
Words in this poem
- christendom n.
- The profession of faith in Christ by baptism; hence, the Christian religion, or the adoption of it. [AS. cristend; cristen a Christian + -dom.]
- fortitude n.
- Power to resist attack; strength; firmness. [L. fortitudo, fr. fortis strong. See Fort.]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Trojan Women, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, April 1918 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, The Trojan Women, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, April 1918, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/the-trojan-women-birmingham-repertory-theatre-april-1918.html, id L23132.
Form and metre
The Trojan Women, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, April 1918 is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG comeA · christendomA · wrongB · songB · callC · wallC · renewedD · fortitudeD · rowsE · fellowsE · bringF · singF · madeG · shadeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Shades, that our town-fellows have come | 8 | ··/·/˘·· |
| To hear rewake for Christendom | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| This cleansing of a Pagan wrong | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In flowing tides of tragic song,-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| You shadows that the living call | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| To walk again the Trojan wall,-- | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| You lips and countenance renewed | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| Of an immortal fortitude,-- | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Know that, among the silent rows | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of these our daily town-fellows, | 9 | ··/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Watching the shades with these who bring | 8 | /˘······ |
| But mortal ears to this you sing, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| There somewhere sits the Greek who made | 8 | ·/······ |
| This gift of song, himself a shade. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
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.