The White Flag
I sent my love two roses,--oneAs white as driven snow,And one a blushing royal red,A flaming Jacqueminot.
I meant to touch and test my fate;That night I should divine,The moment I should see my love,If her true heart were mine.
For if she holds me dear, I said,She'll wear my blushing rose;If not, she'll wear my cold LamarqueAs white as winter's snows.
My heart sank when I met her: sureI had been over bold,For on her breast my pale rose layIn virgin whiteness cold.
Yet with low words she greeted me,With smiles divinely tender;Upon her cheek the red rose dawned.--The white rose meant surrender.
Words in this poem
- jacqueminot n.
- A half-hardy, deep crimson rose of the remontant class; -- so named after General Jacqueminot, of France.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The White Flag 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, The White Flag, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/the-white-flag.html, id L21608.
Form and metre
The White Flag is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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.
- 2 -A-A fate · divineA · love · mineA
- 3 -A-A said · roseA · lamarque · snowsA
- 4 -A-A sure · boldA · lay · coldA
- 5 -A-A me · tenderA · dawned · surrenderA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I sent my love two roses,--one | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As white as driven snow, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And one a blushing royal red, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| A flaming Jacqueminot. | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| I meant to touch and test my fate; | 8 | ········ |
| That night I should divine, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The moment I should see my love, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| If her true heart were mine. | 6 | ······ |
| For if she holds me dear, I said, | 8 | ········ |
| She'll wear my blushing rose; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| If not, she'll wear my cold Lamarque | 8 | ········ |
| As white as winter's snows. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| My heart sank when I met her: sure | 8 | ········ |
| I had been over bold, | 6 | ······ |
| For on her breast my pale rose lay | 8 | ········ |
| In virgin whiteness cold. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Yet with low words she greeted me, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With smiles divinely tender; | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| Upon her cheek the red rose dawned.-- | 8 | ········ |
| The white rose meant surrender. | 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.