The Degenerate Gallants
What business brings you here, young cavaliers?Men like the Cid, the knights of bygone years,Rode out the battle of the weak to wage,Protecting beauty and revering age.Their armor sat on them, strong men as true,Much lighter than your velvet rests on you.Not in a lady's room by stealth they knelt;In church, by day, they spoke the love they felt.They kept their houses' honor bright from rust,They told no secret, and betrayed no trust;And if a wife they wanted, bold and gay,With lance, or axe, or falchion, and by day,Bravely they won and wore her. As for thoseWho slip through streets when honest men repose,With eyes turned to the ground, and in night's shadeThe rights of trusting husbands to invade;I say the Cid would force such knaves as theseTo beg the city's pardon on their knees;And with the flat of his all-conquering bladeTheir rank usurped and 'scutcheon would degrade.Thus would the men of former times, I say,Treat the degenerate minions of to-day.
Words in this poem
- bygone n.
- Something gone by or past; a past event.
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
- stealth n.
- The act of stealing; theft. [OE. staple. See Steal, v. t.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- 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.]
- bravely adv.
- In a brave manner; courageously; gallantly; valiantly; splendidly; nobly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Degenerate Gallants is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, the various hands translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Victor Hugo, The Degenerate Gallants, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/the-degenerate-gallants.html, id L26872.
Form and metre
The Degenerate Gallants is 22 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIHHFF cavaliersA · yearsA · wageB · ageB · trueC · youC · kneltD · feltD · rustE · trustE · gayF · dayF · thoseG · reposeG · shadeH · invadeH · theseI · kneesI · bladeH · degradeH · sayF · dayF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What business brings you here, young cavaliers? | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Men like the Cid, the knights of bygone years, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Rode out the battle of the weak to wage, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Protecting beauty and revering age. | 10 | ˘/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Their armor sat on them, strong men as true, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Much lighter than your velvet rests on you. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Not in a lady's room by stealth they knelt; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In church, by day, they spoke the love they felt. | 10 | ·········· |
| They kept their houses' honor bright from rust, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| They told no secret, and betrayed no trust; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| And if a wife they wanted, bold and gay, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| With lance, or axe, or falchion, and by day, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Bravely they won and wore her. As for those | 10 | /˘········ |
| Who slip through streets when honest men repose, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| With eyes turned to the ground, and in night's shade | 10 | ·········· |
| The rights of trusting husbands to invade; | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| I say the Cid would force such knaves as these | 10 | ·········· |
| To beg the city's pardon on their knees; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And with the flat of his all-conquering blade | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Their rank usurped and 'scutcheon would degrade. | 10 | ···/·/˘·˘/ |
| Thus would the men of former times, I say, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Treat the degenerate minions of to-day. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
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.