Romance
‘TALK of pluck!’ pursued the Sailor,Set at euchre on his elbow,‘I was on the wharf at Charleston,Just ashore from off the runner.
‘It was grey and dirty weather,And I heard a drum go rolling,Rub-a-dubbing in the distance,Awful dour-like and defiant.
‘In and out among the cotton,Mud, and chains, and stores, and anchors,Tramped a squad of battered scarecrows—Poor old Dixie’s bottom dollar!
‘Some had shoes, but all had rifles,Them that wasn’t bald was beardless,And the drum was rolling Dixie,And they stepped to it like men, sir!
‘Rags and tatters, belts and bayonets,On they swung, the drum a-rolling,Mum and sour. It looked like fighting,And they meant it too, by thunder!’
Words in this poem
- defiant a.
- Full of defiance; bold; insolent; as, a defiant spirit or act. [Cf. F. défiant, p. pr. of défier. See Defy.]
- squad n.
- A small party of men assembled for drill, inspection, or other purposes. [F. escouade, fr. Sp. escuadra, or It. squadra, (assumed) LL. exquadrare to square; L. ex + quadra a square. See Square.]
- dixie n.
- A colloquial name for the Southern portion of the United States, esp. during the Civil War. [U.S.]
- beardless a.
- Without a beard. Hence: Not having arrived at puberty or manhood; youthful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Romance is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, Romance, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/romance.html, id L12342.
Form and metre
Romance is 20 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 17 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ‘TALK of pluck!’ pursued the Sailor, | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| Set at euchre on his elbow, | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| ‘I was on the wharf at Charleston, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Just ashore from off the runner. | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| ‘It was grey and dirty weather, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And I heard a drum go rolling, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Rub-a-dubbing in the distance, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Awful dour-like and defiant. | 9 | /˘/˘··˘/˘ |
| ‘In and out among the cotton, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Mud, and chains, and stores, and anchors, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Tramped a squad of battered scarecrows— | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Poor old Dixie’s bottom dollar! | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| ‘Some had shoes, but all had rifles, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Them that wasn’t bald was beardless, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And the drum was rolling Dixie, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And they stepped to it like men, sir! | 8 | ········ |
| ‘Rags and tatters, belts and bayonets, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| On they swung, the drum a-rolling, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Mum and sour. It looked like fighting, | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| And they meant it too, by thunder!’ | 8 | ······/˘ |
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.