The Color Sergeant
Under a burning tropic sun,With comrades around him lying,A trooper of the sable TenthLay wounded, bleeding, dying.
First in the charge up the fort-crowned hill,His company's guidon bearing,He had rushed where the leaden hail fell fast,Not death nor danger fearing.
He fell in the front where the fight grew fierce,Still faithful in life's last labor;Black though his skin, yet his heart as trueAs the steel of his blood-stained saber.
And while the battle around him rolled,Like the roar of a sullen breaker,He closed his eyes on the bloody scene,And presented arms to his Maker.
There he lay, without honor or rank,But, still, in a grim-like beauty;Despised of men for his humble race,Yet true, in death, to his duty.
Words in this poem
- trooper n.
- A soldier in a body of cavalry; a cavalryman; also, the horse of a cavalryman.
- sable n.
- A carnivorous animal of the Weasel family (Mustela zibellina) native of the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and America, -- noted for its fine, soft, and valuable fur. [OF. sable, F. zibeline sable (in sense 4), LL. sabellum; cf. D. sabel, Dan. sabel, zobel, Sw. sabel, sobel, G. zobel; all fr. Russ. sóbole.]
- rushed a.
- Abounding or covered with rushes.
- 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.]
- breaker n.
- One who, or that which, breaks.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Color Sergeant is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, The Color Sergeant, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/the-color-sergeant.html, id L08291.
Form and metre
The Color Sergeant is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.6 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 -A-A sun · lyingA · tenth · dyingA
- 3 -A-A fierce · laborA · true · saberA
- 4 -A-A rolled · breakerA · scene · makerA
- 5 -A-A rank · beautyA · race · dutyA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Under a burning tropic sun, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| With comrades around him lying, | 8 | ·/····/˘ |
| A trooper of the sable Tenth | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Lay wounded, bleeding, dying. | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| First in the charge up the fort-crowned hill, | 9 | ········· |
| His company's guidon bearing, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| He had rushed where the leaden hail fell fast, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Not death nor danger fearing. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| He fell in the front where the fight grew fierce, | 10 | ·········· |
| Still faithful in life's last labor; | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Black though his skin, yet his heart as true | 9 | ········· |
| As the steel of his blood-stained saber. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And while the battle around him rolled, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Like the roar of a sullen breaker, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| He closed his eyes on the bloody scene, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And presented arms to his Maker. | 9 | ·˘/˘···/˘ |
| There he lay, without honor or rank, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| But, still, in a grim-like beauty; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Despised of men for his humble race, | 9 | ˘/····/˘· |
| Yet true, in death, to his duty. | 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.