The Despatch of the Doom
While in the jolly tavern, the bandits gayly drink,Upon the haunted highway, sharp hoof-beats loudly clink?Yea; past scant-buried victims, hard-spurring sturdy steed,A mute and grisly rider is trampling grass and weed,And by the black-sealed warrant which in his grasp shines clear,I known it is the Future--God's Justicer is here!
Words in this poem
- gayly adv.
- With mirth and frolic; merrily; blithely; gleefully.
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- clink v. t.
- To cause to give out a slight, sharp, tinkling, sound, as by striking metallic or other sonorous bodies together. [OE. clinken; akin to G. klingen, D. klinken, SW. klinga, Dan. klinge; prob. of imitative origin. Cf. Clank, Clench, Click, v. i.]
- steed n.
- A horse, especially a spirited horse for state of war; -- used chiefly in poetry or stately prose. [OE. stede, AS. steda a stud-horse, war horse, fr. stod a stud of breeding steeds; akin to G. stute a mare, Icel. stedda, sto, a stud. *163. See Stud of horses.]
- justicer n.
- One who administers justice; a judge.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Despatch of the Doom 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 Despatch of the Doom, in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8775, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hugo-poems/the-despatch-of-the-doom.html, id L26800.
Form and metre
The Despatch of the Doom is 6 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 AABBCC drinkA · clinkA · steedB · weedB · clearC · hereC
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| While in the jolly tavern, the bandits gayly drink, | 13 | ···/˘/˘·/˘/˘· |
| Upon the haunted highway, sharp hoof-beats loudly clink? | 13 | ···/˘/····/˘· |
| Yea; past scant-buried victims, hard-spurring sturdy steed, | 13 | ···/˘/˘·/˘/˘· |
| A mute and grisly rider is trampling grass and weed, | 12 | ···/˘/·/˘··· |
| And by the black-sealed warrant which in his grasp shines clear, | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| I known it is the Future--God's Justicer is here! | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘˘·· |
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.