Patriot Chorus on the Eve of War
IN thy holy need, our country,Shatter other idols straightway;Quench our household fires before us,Reap the pomp of harvests low;Strike aside each glad ambitionBorn of youth and golden leisure,Leave us only to rememberFaith we swore thee long ago!
All the passionate sweep of heart-strings,Thirst and famine, din of battle,All the wild despair and sorrowThat were ever or shall be,Are too little, are too worthless,Laid along thine upward pathwayAs with our souls’ strength we lay them,Stepping-stones, O Love! for thee.
If we be thy burden-bearers,Let us ease thee of thy sorrow;If our hands be thine avengers,Life or death, they shall not fail;If thy heart be just and tender,Wrong us not with hesitation:Take us, trust us, lead us, love us,Till the eternal Truth prevail!
Words in this poem
- straightway adv.
- Immediately; without loss of time; without delay.
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
- 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,]
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Patriot Chorus on the Eve of War is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs at the Start, Project Gutenberg ebook #53087; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Louise Imogen Guiney, Patriot Chorus on the Eve of War, in Songs at the Start (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #53087, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/guiney-songs/patriot-chorus-on-the-eve-of-war.html, id L11208.
Form and metre
Patriot Chorus on the Eve of War is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 13 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ---A---A country · straightway · us · lowA · ambition · leisure · remember · agoA
- 2 ---A---A strings · battle · sorrow · beA · worthless · pathway · them · theeA
- 3 ---A---A bearers · sorrow · avengers · failA · tender · hesitation · us · prevailA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| IN thy holy need, our country, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Shatter other idols straightway; | 8 | /˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Quench our household fires before us, | 8 | ·//·/··· |
| Reap the pomp of harvests low; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Strike aside each glad ambition | 8 | ·˘/··˘/˘ |
| Born of youth and golden leisure, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Leave us only to remember | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Faith we swore thee long ago! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| All the passionate sweep of heart-strings, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Thirst and famine, din of battle, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| All the wild despair and sorrow | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| That were ever or shall be, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Are too little, are too worthless, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Laid along thine upward pathway | 8 | ·˘/·/˘/· |
| As with our souls’ strength we lay them, | 8 | ··/····· |
| Stepping-stones, O Love! for thee. | 7 | /˘····· |
| If we be thy burden-bearers, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Let us ease thee of thy sorrow; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| If our hands be thine avengers, | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Life or death, they shall not fail; | 7 | ······· |
| If thy heart be just and tender, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Wrong us not with hesitation: | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Take us, trust us, lead us, love us, | 8 | ········ |
| Till the eternal Truth prevail! | 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.