Channel Firing
THAT night your great guns, unawares,Shook all our coffins as we lay,And broke the chancel window-squares,We thought it was the Judgment-day
And sat upright. While drearisomeArose the howl of wakened hounds:The mouse let fall the altar-crumb,The worms drew back into the mounds,
The glebe cow drooled. Till God called, “No;It’s gunnery practice out at seaJust as before you went below;The world is as it used to be:
“All nations striving strong to makeRed war yet redder. Mad as hattersThey do no more for Christés sakeThan you who are helpless in such matters.
“That this is not the judgment-hourFor some of them’s a blessed thing,For if it were they’d have to scourHell’s floor for so much threatening . . .
“Ha, ha. It will be warmer whenI blow the trumpet (if indeedI ever do; for you are men,And rest eternal sorely need).”
So down we lay again. “I wonder,Will the world ever saner be,”Said one, “than when He sent us underIn our indifferent century!”
And many a skeleton shook his head.“Instead of preaching forty year,”My neighbour Parson Thirdly said,“I wish I had stuck to pipes and beer.”
Again the guns disturbed the hour,Roaring their readiness to avenge,As far inland as Stourton Tower,And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- drearisome a.
- Very dreary. Halliwell.
- gunnery n.
- That branch of military science which comprehends the theory of projectiles, and the manner of constructing and using ordnance.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- sorely adv.
- In a sore manner; grievously; painfully; as, to be sorely afflicted.
- neighbour v. i.
- To dwell in the vicinity; to be a neighbor, or in the neighborhood; to be near.
- thirdly adv.
- In the third place.
- starlit a.
- Lighted by the stars; starlight.
- stonehenge n.
- An assemblage of upright stones with others placed horizontally on their tops, on Salisbury Plain, England, -- generally supposed to be the remains of an ancient Druidical temple.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Channel Firing is in the public domain. This text is taken from Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries, with Miscellaneous Pieces, Project Gutenberg ebook #2863; 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, Channel Firing, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2863, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-satires/channel-firing.html, id L24000.
Form and metre
Channel Firing is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 7 of its 9 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABAB unawaresA · layB · squaresA · dayB
- 2 -A-A drearisome · houndsA · crumb · moundsA
- 3 ABAB noA · seaB · belowA · beB
- 4 ABAB makeA · hattersB · sakeA · mattersB
- 5 ABAB hourA · thingB · scourA · threateningB
- 6 ABAB whenA · indeedB · menA · needB
- 7 A-A- wonderA · be · underA · century
- 8 ABAB headA · yearB · saidA · beerB
- 9 ABAB hourA · avengeB · towerA · stonehengeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THAT night your great guns, unawares, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Shook all our coffins as we lay, | 8 | ··//˘··· |
| And broke the chancel window-squares, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| We thought it was the Judgment-day | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And sat upright. While drearisome | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| Arose the howl of wakened hounds: | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| The mouse let fall the altar-crumb, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The worms drew back into the mounds, | 8 | ········ |
| The glebe cow drooled. Till God called, “No; | 8 | ········ |
| It’s gunnery practice out at sea | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Just as before you went below; | 8 | ········ |
| The world is as it used to be: | 8 | ········ |
| “All nations striving strong to make | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| They do no more for Christés sake | 7 | ······· |
| Than you who are helpless in such matters. | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| “That this is not the judgment-hour | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| For some of them’s a blessed thing, | 8 | ······˘· |
| For if it were they’d have to scour | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Hell’s floor for so much threatening . . . | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| “Ha, ha. It will be warmer when | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I blow the trumpet (if indeed | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| I ever do; for you are men, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And rest eternal sorely need).” | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| So down we lay again. “I wonder, | 9 | ····˘/·/˘ |
| Will the world ever saner be,” | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Said one, “than when He sent us under | 9 | ········· |
| In our indifferent century!” | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘˘ |
| And many a skeleton shook his head. | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| “Instead of preaching forty year,” | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| My neighbour Parson Thirdly said, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| “I wish I had stuck to pipes and beer.” | 9 | ········· |
| Again the guns disturbed the hour, | 9 | ˘/··˘/·/˘ |
| Roaring their readiness to avenge, | 8 | /˘·/˘·˘/ |
| As far inland as Stourton Tower, | 9 | ··/····/˘ |
| And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/· |
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.