Troubadour Song
They rear’d no trophy o’er his grave,They hade no requiem flow;What left they there to tell the braveThat a warrior sleeps below?
A shiver’d spear, a cloven shield,A helm with its white plume torn,And a blood-stain’d turf on the fatal field,Where a chief to his rest was borne.
He lies not where his fathers sleep,But who hath a tomb more proud?For the Syrian wilds his record keep,And a banner is his shroud.
Words in this poem
- trophy n.
- A sign or memorial of a victory raised on the field of battle, or, in case of a naval victory, on the nearest land. Sometimes trophies were erected in the chief city of the conquered people. [F. trophée (cf. It. & Sp. trofeo), L. tropaeum, trophaeum, Gr. Trope.]
- hade n.
- The descent of a hill. [Cf. heald inclined, bowed down, G. halde declivity.]
- requiem n.
- A mass said or sung for the repose of a departed soul. [Acc. of L. requies rest, the first words of the Mass being "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine," give eternal rest to them, O lord; pref. re- re + quies quiet. S]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Troubadour Song 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, Troubadour Song, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/troubadour-song-2.html, id L19782.
Form and metre
Troubadour Song is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
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 graveA · flowB · braveA · belowB
- 2 ABAB shieldA · tornB · fieldA · borneB
- 3 ABAB sleepA · proudB · keepA · shroudB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They rear’d no trophy o’er his grave, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| They hade no requiem flow; | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| What left they there to tell the brave | 8 | ········ |
| That a warrior sleeps below? | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| A shiver’d spear, a cloven shield, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A helm with its white plume torn, | 7 | ······· |
| And a blood-stain’d turf on the fatal field, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where a chief to his rest was borne. | 8 | ········ |
| He lies not where his fathers sleep, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But who hath a tomb more proud? | 7 | ······· |
| For the Syrian wilds his record keep, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| And a banner is his shroud. | 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.