The Volunteer
"The clashing of my armor in my earsSounds like a passing bell; my buckler puts meIn mind of a bier; this, my broadsword, a pickaxeTo dig my grave."
Words in this poem
- bier n.
- A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave. [OE. bæe, beere, AS. b, b; akin to D. baar, OHG. bara, G. bahre, Icel barar, Dbaare, L. feretrum, Gr. , from the same bear to produce. See 1st Bear, and cf. Barr]
- broadsword n.
- A sword with a broad blade and a cutting edge; a claymore.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Volunteer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hood, The Volunteer, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/the-volunteer.html, id L20142.
Form and metre
The Volunteer is 4 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "The clashing of my armor in my ears | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Sounds like a passing bell; my buckler puts me | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| In mind of a bier; this, my broadsword, a pickaxe | 12 | ·······/···· |
| To dig my grave." | 4 | ···· |
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.