The Banishment of the Cid LVII
"Ha! lay aside your booty now, every cavalier,And take in hand your weapons, and get on your battle-gear.Count don Remónd against us will deliver battle strong;Great bands of Moors and Christians he brings with him along.He will not for any reason without fighting let us go.Here let us have the battle since they pursue us so.So get you on your armour and girth the horses tight.Down the hill they come in hosen and their saddles are but light,And loose their girths. Each man of us has a Galician selle,And moreover with the jackboots are our hosen covered well.We should beat them though we numbered but fivescore cavaliers.Before they reach the level, let us front them with the spears.For each you strike three saddles thereby shall empty go.Who was the man he hunted, Remónd Berenguél shall knowThis day in Tévar's pine grove, who would take from me my prey."
Words in this poem
- cavalier n.
- A military man serving on horseback; a knight. [F. cavalier, It. cavaliere, LL. caballarius, fr. L. caballus. See Cavalcade, and cf. Cavallier, Caballine.]
- armour n.
- Defensive arms for the body; any clothing or covering worn to protect one's person in battle. [OE. armure, fr. F. armure, OF. armeure, fr. L. armatura. See Armature.]
- galician a.
- Of or pertaining to Galicia, in Spain, or to Galicia, the kingdom of Austrian Poland. [Cf. Sp. Galiciano, Gallego, fr. L. Gallaecus, Gallaicus, fr. Gallaeci a people in Western Spain.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Banishment of the Cid LVII is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Lay of the Cid, Project Gutenberg ebook #6088, the R. Selden Rose and Leonard Bacon 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: Anonymous, The Banishment of the Cid LVII, in The Lay of the Cid (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6088, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lay-of-the-cid/the-banishment-of-the-cid-lvii.html, id L15065.
Form and metre
The Banishment of the Cid LVII is 15 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 93% of the lines. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.0 syllables. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFCC- cavalierA · gearA · strongB · alongB · goC · soC · tightD · lightD · selleE · wellE · cavaliersF · spearsF · goC · knowC · prey
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Ha! lay aside your booty now, every cavalier, | 14 | ··˘/·/˘·/˘˘·˘/ |
| And take in hand your weapons, and get on your battle-gear. | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘· |
| Count don Remónd against us will deliver battle strong; | 14 | ········˘/˘/˘· |
| Great bands of Moors and Christians he brings with him along. | 13 | ·····/˘····˘/ |
| He will not for any reason without fighting let us go. | 15 | ····/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Here let us have the battle since they pursue us so. | 13 | ·····/˘··˘/·· |
| So get you on your armour and girth the horses tight. | 13 | ·····/˘···/˘· |
| Down the hill they come in hosen and their saddles are but light, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| And loose their girths. Each man of us has a Galician selle, | 14 | ··········˘/˘· |
| And moreover with the jackboots are our hosen covered well. | 15 | ·˘/˘·····//˘/˘· |
| We should beat them though we numbered but fivescore cavaliers. | 15 | ······/˘·····˘/ |
| Before they reach the level, let us front them with the spears. | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| For each you strike three saddles thereby shall empty go. | 13 | ·····/˘···/˘· |
| Who was the man he hunted, Remónd Berenguél shall know | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| This day in Tévar's pine grove, who would take from me my prey." | 14 | ·············· |
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.