Enthusiasts
Let your swords flash, and wound the golden air of God:Bright steel, to meet and cleave the splendour of His sun!Now is a war of wars in majesty begun:Red shall the cornfields ripen, where our horses trod,Where scythe nor sickle swept, but smote war's iron rod:Where the stars rose and set, and saw the blood still run.So shall men tell of us, and dread our deeds, though done:New annals yet shall praise time's fiercest period.
Let your swords flash, and wound the glowing air: now playA glorious dance of death, with clash and gleam of sword.Did Syrian sun and moon stand still on Israel's day?Those orbs halt over Ajalon at Joshua's word?Of us, who ride for God, shall Christian children say:To battle, see! flash by armed angels of the Lord.
Words in this poem
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- annals n.
- A relation of events in chronological order, each event being recorded under the year in which it happened. [L. annalis (sc. liber), and more frequently in the pl. annales (sc. libri), chronicles, fr. annus year. Cf. Annual.]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Enthusiasts is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lionel Johnson, Enthusiasts, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/enthusiasts.html, id L12516.
Form and metre
Enthusiasts is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See 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 ABBAABBA godA · sunB · begunB · trodA · rodA · runB · doneB · periodA
- 2 ABA-AB playA · swordB · dayA · word · sayA · lordB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Let your swords flash, and wound the golden air of God: | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Bright steel, to meet and cleave the splendour of His sun! | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Now is a war of wars in majesty begun: | 12 | ·······/˘˘˘/ |
| Red shall the cornfields ripen, where our horses trod, | 12 | ···///˘·//˘· |
| Where scythe nor sickle swept, but smote war's iron rod: | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| Where the stars rose and set, and saw the blood still run. | 12 | ············ |
| So shall men tell of us, and dread our deeds, though done: | 12 | ········/··· |
| New annals yet shall praise time's fiercest period. | 12 | ·/˘····/˘/˘˘ |
| Let your swords flash, and wound the glowing air: now play | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| A glorious dance of death, with clash and gleam of sword. | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| Did Syrian sun and moon stand still on Israel's day? | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
| Those orbs halt over Ajalon at Joshua's word? | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| Of us, who ride for God, shall Christian children say: | 12 | ·······/˘/˘· |
| To battle, see! flash by armed angels of the Lord. | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
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.