Riparto d’Assalto
Drummed their boots on the camion floor,Hob-nailed boots on the camion floor.Sergeants stiff,Corporals sore.Lieutenant thought of a Mestre whore—Warm and soft and sleepy whore,Cozy, warm and lovely whore;Damned cold, bitter, rotten ride,Winding road up the Grappa side.Arditi on benches stiff and cold,Pride of their country stiff and cold,Bristly faces, dirty hides—Infantry marches, Arditi rides.Grey, cold, bitter, sullen ride—To splintered pines on the Grappa sideAt Asalone, where the truck-load died.
Words in this poem
- whore n.
- A woman who practices unlawful sexual commerce with men, especially one who prostitutes her body for hire; a prostitute; a harlot. Wyclif. [OE. hore, AS. h; akin to D. hoer, hoere, G. hure, OHG. huora, huorra, Icel. h, Dan. hore, Sw. hora, Goth. h an adulterer, AS. h adultery, OHG. huor, and probabl]
- damned a.
- Sentenced to punishment in a future state; condemned; consigned to perdition.
- bristly a.
- THick set with bristles, or with hairs resembling bristles; rough.
- 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]
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Riparto d’Assalto is in the public domain. This text is taken from Three Stories & Ten Poems (poems only), Project Gutenberg ebook #59603; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Hemingway, Riparto d’Assalto, in Ten Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59603, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemingway-ten-poems/riparto-d-assalto.html, id L27123.
Form and metre
Riparto d’Assalto is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 75% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AA-AAAABBCCDDBBB floorA · floorA · stiff · soreA · whoreA · whoreA · whoreA · rideB · sideB · coldC · coldC · hidesD · ridesD · rideB · sideB · diedB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Drummed their boots on the camion floor, | 8 | ········ |
| Hob-nailed boots on the camion floor. | 8 | ········ |
| Sergeants stiff, | 3 | /˘· |
| Corporals sore. | 4 | /˘˘· |
| Lieutenant thought of a Mestre whore— | 9 | ˘/˘···/˘· |
| Warm and soft and sleepy whore, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Cozy, warm and lovely whore; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Damned cold, bitter, rotten ride, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Winding road up the Grappa side. | 8 | /˘······ |
| Arditi on benches stiff and cold, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Pride of their country stiff and cold, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Bristly faces, dirty hides— | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Infantry marches, Arditi rides. | 9 | /˘˘/˘···· |
| Grey, cold, bitter, sullen ride— | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| To splintered pines on the Grappa side | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| At Asalone, where the truck-load died. | 9 | ········· |
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.