The Trumpet
The trumpet’s voice hath roused the land--Light up the beacon pyre!A hundred hills have seen the brand,And waved the sign of fire.A hundred banners to the breezeTheir gorgeous folds have cast--And, hark! was that the sound of seas?A king to war went past.
The chief is arming in his hall,The peasant by his hearth;The mourner hears the thrilling call,And rises from the earth.The mother on her first-born sonLooks with a boding eye--They come not back, though all be won,Whose young hearts leap so high.
The bard hath ceased his song, and boundThe falchion to his side;E’en, for the marriage altar crown’d,The lover quits his bride.And all this haste, and change, and fear,By earthly clarion spread!--How will it be when kingdoms hearThe blast that wakes the dead?
Words in this poem
- pyre n.
- A funeral pile; a combustible heap on which the dead are burned; hence, any pile to be burnt. [L. pure, Gr. Fire.]
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- arming n.
- The act of furnishing with, or taking, arms.
- mourner n.
- One who mourns or is grieved at any misfortune, as the death of a friend.
- thrilling a.
- Causing a thrill; causing tremulous excitement; deeply moving; as, a thrilling romance.
- boding a.
- Foreshowing; presaging; ominous.
- falchion n.
- A broad-bladed sword, slightly curved, shorter and lighter than the ordinary sword; -- used in the Middle Ages. [OE. fauchon, OF. fauchon, LL. fälcio, fr. L. falx, falcis, a sickle, cf. Gr. falcon; cf. It. falcione. Cf. Defalcation.]
- clarion n.
- A kind of trumpet, whose note is clear and shrill. [OE. clarioun, OF. clarion, F. clairon, LL. clario, claro; so called from its clear tone, fr. L. clarus clear. See Clear.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Trumpet is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, The Trumpet, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/the-trumpet.html, id L19386.
Form and metre
The Trumpet is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 ABABCDCD landA · pyreB · brandA · fireB · breezeC · castD · seasC · pastD
- 2 A-A-BCBC hallA · hearth · callA · earth · sonB · eyeC · wonB · highC
- 3 ABABCDCD boundA · sideB · crown'dA · brideB · fearC · spreadD · hearC · deadD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The trumpet’s voice hath roused the land-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Light up the beacon pyre! | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| A hundred hills have seen the brand, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And waved the sign of fire. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| A hundred banners to the breeze | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Their gorgeous folds have cast-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And, hark! was that the sound of seas? | 8 | ········ |
| A king to war went past. | 6 | ······ |
| The chief is arming in his hall, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The peasant by his hearth; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The mourner hears the thrilling call, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And rises from the earth. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The mother on her first-born son | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Looks with a boding eye-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| They come not back, though all be won, | 8 | ········ |
| Whose young hearts leap so high. | 6 | ······ |
| The bard hath ceased his song, and bound | 8 | ········ |
| The falchion to his side; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| E’en, for the marriage altar crown’d, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The lover quits his bride. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And all this haste, and change, and fear, | 8 | ········ |
| By earthly clarion spread!-- | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘· |
| How will it be when kingdoms hear | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The blast that wakes the dead? | 6 | ······ |
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.