A Triumph of Order
A squad of regular infantry,In the Commune's closing days,Had captured a crowd of rebelsBy the wall of Pere-la-Chaise.
There were desperate men, wild women,And dark-eyed Amazon girls,And one little boy, with a peach-down cheekAnd yellow clustering curls.
The captain seized the little waif,And said, "What dost thou here?""Sapristi, Citizen captain!I'm a Communist, my dear!"
"Very well! Then you die with the others!"--"Very well! That's my affair;But first let me take to my mother,Who lives by the wine-shop there,
"My father's watch. You see it;A gay old thing, is it not?It would please the old lady to have it;Then I'll come back here, and be shot."
"That is the last we shall see of him,"The grizzled captain grinned,As the little man skimmed down the hillLike a swallow down the wind.
For the joy of killing had lost its zestIn the glut of those awful days,And Death writhed, gorged like a greedy snake,From the Arch to Pere-la-Chaise.
But before the last platoon had firedThe child's shrill voice was heard;"Houp-la! the old girl made such a rowI feared I should break my word."
Against the bullet-pitted wallHe took his place with the rest,A button was lost from his ragged blouse,Which showed his soft white breast.
"Now blaze away, my children!With your little one-two-three!"The Chassepots tore the stout young heart,And saved Society.
Words in this poem
- squad n.
- A small party of men assembled for drill, inspection, or other purposes. [F. escouade, fr. Sp. escuadra, or It. squadra, (assumed) LL. exquadrare to square; L. ex + quadra a square. See Square.]
- infantry n.
- A body of children. B. Jonson. [F. infanterie, It. infanteria, fr. infante infant, child, boy servant, foot soldier, fr. L. infans, -antis, child; foot soldiers being formerly the servants and]
- desperate a.
- Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare. See Despair, and cf. Desperado.]
- communist n.
- An advocate for the theory or practice of communism. [F. communiste.]
- 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,]
- zest n.
- A piece of orange or lemon peel, or the aromatic oil which may be squeezed from such peel, used to give flavor to liquor, etc. [F. zeste, probably fr. L. schistos split, cleft, divided, Gr. Schism.]
- gorged a.
- Having a gorge or throat.
- blouse n.
- A light, loose over-garment, like a smock frock, worn especially by workingmen in France; also, a loose coat of any material, as the undress uniform coat of the United States army. [F. blouse. Of unknown origin.]
- tore n.
- The dead grass that remains on mowing land in winter and spring. Mortimer. [Probably from the root of tear; cf. W. tór a break, cut, tóri to break, cut.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Triumph of Order is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pike County Ballads and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #6062; 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 Hay, A Triumph of Order, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/a-triumph-of-order.html, id L21590.
Form and metre
A Triumph of Order is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 infantry · daysA · rebels · chaiseA
- 2 -A-A women · girlsA · cheek · curlsA
- 3 -A-A waif · hereA · captain · dearA
- 4 -A-A others · affairA · mother · thereA
- 5 ABAB itA · notB · itA · shotB
- 6 -A-A him · grinnedA · hill · windA
- 7 -A-A zest · daysA · snake · chaiseA
- 8 AA-A firedA · heardA · row · wordA
- 9 -A-A wall · restA · blouse · breastA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A squad of regular infantry, | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘˘ |
| In the Commune's closing days, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Had captured a crowd of rebels | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| By the wall of Pere-la-Chaise. | 7 | ······· |
| There were desperate men, wild women, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And dark-eyed Amazon girls, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| And one little boy, with a peach-down cheek | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And yellow clustering curls. | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘· |
| The captain seized the little waif, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And said, "What dost thou here?" | 6 | ······ |
| "Sapristi, Citizen captain! | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| I'm a Communist, my dear!" | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| "Very well! Then you die with the others!" | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
| --"Very well! That's my affair; | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| But first let me take to my mother, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Who lives by the wine-shop there, | 7 | ······· |
| "My father's watch. You see it; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| A gay old thing, is it not? | 7 | ······· |
| It would please the old lady to have it; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Then I'll come back here, and be shot." | 8 | ········ |
| "That is the last we shall see of him," | 9 | ········· |
| The grizzled captain grinned, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘·˘ |
| As the little man skimmed down the hill | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Like a swallow down the wind. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| For the joy of killing had lost its zest | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| In the glut of those awful days, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And Death writhed, gorged like a greedy snake, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| From the Arch to Pere-la-Chaise. | 7 | ······· |
| But before the last platoon had fired | 9 | ·····˘/·/ |
| The child's shrill voice was heard; | 6 | ······ |
| "Houp-la! the old girl made such a row | 9 | ········· |
| I feared I should break my word." | 8 | ··˘····· |
| Against the bullet-pitted wall | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| He took his place with the rest, | 7 | ······· |
| A button was lost from his ragged blouse, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Which showed his soft white breast. | 7 | ··˘···· |
| "Now blaze away, my children! | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| With your little one-two-three!" | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| The Chassepots tore the stout young heart, | 9 | ········· |
| And saved Society. | 7 | ··˘˘/˘˘ |
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.