England to Germany in 1914
“O ENGLAND, may God punish thee!”—Is it that Teuton genius flowersOnly to breathe malignityUpon its friend of earlier hours?—We have eaten your bread, you have eaten ours,We have loved your burgs, your pines’ green moan,Fair Rhine-stream, and its storied towers;Your shining souls of deathless dowersHave won us as they were our own:
We have nursed no dreams to shed your blood,We have matched your might not rancorously,Save a flushed few whose blatant moodYou heard and marked as well as weTo tongue not in their country’s key;But yet you cry with face aflame,“O England, may God punish thee!”And foul in onward history,And present sight, your ancient name.
Words in this poem
- storied a.
- Told in a story. [From Story.]
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- rancorously adv.
- In a rancorous manner.
- blatant a.
- Bellowing, as a calf; bawling; brawling; clamoring; disagreeably clamorous; sounding loudly and harshly. [Cf. Bleat.]
- aflame adv.
- Inflames; glowing with light or passion; ablaze. G. Eliot. [Pref. a- + flame.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
England to Germany in 1914 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #3255; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hardy, England to Germany in 1914, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/england-to-germany-in-1914.html, id L24235.
Form and metre
England to Germany in 1914 is 18 lines in 2 stanzas of 9 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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.
- 1 -A-AABA-B thee · flowersA · malignity · hoursA · oursA · moanB · towersA · dowers · ownB
- 2 ---AABA-B blood · rancorously · mood · weA · keyA · aflameB · theeA · history · nameB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “O ENGLAND, may God punish thee!” | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| —Is it that Teuton genius flowers | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Only to breathe malignity | 8 | /˘··˘/˘˘ |
| Upon its friend of earlier hours? | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| —We have eaten your bread, you have eaten ours, | 11 | ··/˘····/˘/ |
| We have loved your burgs, your pines’ green moan, | 9 | ········· |
| Fair Rhine-stream, and its storied towers; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Your shining souls of deathless dowers | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Have won us as they were our own: | 8 | ······/· |
| We have nursed no dreams to shed your blood, | 9 | ········· |
| We have matched your might not rancorously, | 10 | ······/˘˘˘ |
| Save a flushed few whose blatant mood | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| You heard and marked as well as we | 8 | ········ |
| To tongue not in their country’s key; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But yet you cry with face aflame, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| “O England, may God punish thee!” | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And foul in onward history, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| And present sight, your ancient name. | 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.