When the Boys Come Home
There's a happy time coming,When the boys come home.There's a glorious day coming,When the boys come home.We will end the dreadful storyOf this treason dark and goryIn a sunburst of glory,When the boys come home.
The day will seem brighterWhen the boys come home,For our hearts will be lighterWhen the boys come home.Wives and sweethearts will press themIn their arms and caress them,And pray God to bless them,When the boys come home.
The thinned ranks will be proudestWhen the boys come home,And their cheer will ring the loudestWhen the boys come home.The full ranks will be shattered,And the bright arms will be battered,And the battle-standards tattered,When the boys come home.
Their bayonets may be rusty,When the boys come home,And their uniforms dusty,When the boys come home.But all shall see the tracesOf battle's royal graces,In the brown and bearded faces,When the boys come home.
Our love shall go to meet them,When the boys come home,To bless them and to greet them,When the boys come home;And the fame of their endeavourTime and change shall not disseverFrom the nation's heart for ever,When the boys come home.
Words in this poem
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
- gory a.
- Covered with gore or clotted blood. [From Gore.]
- sunburst n.
- A burst of sunlight.
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
- 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,]
- endeavour v. t.
- To exert physical or intellectual strength for the attainment of; to use efforts to effect; to strive to achieve or reach; to try; to attempt. [OE. endevor; pref. en- + dever, devoir, duty, F. devoir: cf. F. se mettre en devoir de faire quelque chose to try to do a thing, to go about it. See Devoir, Deb]
- dissever v. t.
- To part in two; to sever thoroughly; to sunder; to disunite; to separate; to disperse. [OE. dessevrer; pref. des- (L. dis-) + sevrer to sever, F. sevrer to wean, L. separate to separate. In this word the prefix is intensive. See Dis-, and Sever.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
When the Boys Come Home 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, When the Boys Come Home, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/when-the-boys-come-home.html, id L21618.
Form and metre
When the Boys Come Home is 40 lines in 5 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCCCB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 ABABCCCB comingA · homeB · comingA · homeB · storyC · goryC · gloryC · homeB
- 2 ABABCCCB brighterA · homeB · lighterA · homeB · themC · themC · themC · homeB
- 3 ABABCCCB proudestA · homeB · loudestA · homeB · shatteredC · batteredC · tatteredC · homeB
- 4 ABABCCCB rustyA · homeB · dustyA · homeB · tracesC · gracesC · facesC · homeB
- 5 ABABC-CB themA · homeB · themA · homeB · endeavourC · dissever · everC · homeB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There's a happy time coming, | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| When the boys come home. | 5 | ····· |
| There's a glorious day coming, | 8 | ··/˘˘·/˘ |
| When the boys come home. | 5 | ····· |
| We will end the dreadful story | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Of this treason dark and gory | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| In a sunburst of glory, | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| When the boys come home. | 5 | ····· |
| The day will seem brighter | 6 | ····/˘ |
| When the boys come home, | 5 | ····· |
| For our hearts will be lighter | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| When the boys come home. | 5 | ····· |
| Wives and sweethearts will press them | 7 | ··/···· |
| In their arms and caress them, | 7 | ····˘/· |
| And pray God to bless them, | 6 | ······ |
| When the boys come home. | 5 | ····· |
| The thinned ranks will be proudest | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| When the boys come home, | 5 | ····· |
| And their cheer will ring the loudest | 8 | ······/˘ |
| When the boys come home. | 5 | ····· |
| The full ranks will be shattered, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And the bright arms will be battered, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And the battle-standards tattered, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| When the boys come home. | 5 | ····· |
| Their bayonets may be rusty, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| When the boys come home, | 5 | ····· |
| And their uniforms dusty, | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| When the boys come home. | 5 | ····· |
| But all shall see the traces | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Of battle's royal graces, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| In the brown and bearded faces, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| When the boys come home. | 5 | ····· |
| Our love shall go to meet them, | 8 | /˘······ |
| When the boys come home, | 5 | ····· |
| To bless them and to greet them, | 7 | ······· |
| When the boys come home; | 5 | ····· |
| And the fame of their endeavour | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Time and change shall not dissever | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| From the nation's heart for ever, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| When the boys come home. | 5 | ····· |
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.