The Black Hawk War of the Artists
Hawk of the Rocks,Yours is our cause to-day.Watching your foesHere in our war array,Young men we stand,Wolves of the West at bay.Power, power for warComes from these trees divine;Power from the boughs,Boughs where the dew-beads shine,Power from the cones--Yea, from the breath of the pine!
Power to restoreAll that the white hand mars.See the dead eastCrushed with the iron cars--Chimneys blackBlinding the sun and stars!
Hawk of the pines,Hawk of the plain-winds fleet,You shall be kingThere in the iron street,Factory and forgeTrodden beneath your feet.
There will proud treesGrow as they grow by streams.There will proud thoughtsWalk as in warrior dreams.There will proud deedsBloom as when battle gleams!
Warriors of Art,We will hold council there,Hewing in stoneThings to the trapper fair,Painting the grayVeils that the spring moons wear,This our revenge,This one tremendous change:Making new towns,Lit with a star-fire strange,Wild as the dawnGilding the bison-range.
All the young menChanting your cause that day,Red-men, new-madeOut of the Saxon clay,Strong and redeemed,Bold in your war-array!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- trapper n.
- One who traps animals; one who makes a business of trapping animals for their furs. W. Irving. [From Trap to insnare.]
- tremendous a.
- Fitted to excite fear or terror; such as may astonish or terrify by its magnitude, force, or violence; terrible; dreadful; as, a tremendous wind; a tremendous shower; a tremendous shock or fall. [L. tremendus that is to be trembled at, fearful, fr. tremere to tremble. See Tremble.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Black Hawk War of the Artists is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Congo, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Vachel Lindsay, The Black Hawk War of the Artists, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/the-black-hawk-war-of-the-artists.html, id L00945.
Form and metre
The Black Hawk War of the Artists is 48 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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-A-B-B-B rocks · dayA · foes · arrayA · stand · bayA · war · divineB · boughs · shineB · cones · pineB
- 2 -A-A-A restore · marsA · east · carsA · black · starsA
- 3 -A-A-A pines · fleetA · king · streetA · forge · feetA
- 4 -A-A-A trees · streamsA · thoughts · dreamsA · deeds · gleamsA
- 5 -A-A-A-B-B-B art · thereA · stone · fairA · gray · wearA · revenge · changeB · towns · strangeB · dawn · rangeB
- 6 -A-A-A men · dayA · made · clayA · redeemed · arrayA
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Hawk of the Rocks, | 4 | ···· |
| Yours is our cause to-day. | 6 | ··/··· |
| Watching your foes | 4 | /˘·· |
| Here in our war array, | 6 | ··/·˘/ |
| Young men we stand, | 4 | ···· |
| Wolves of the West at bay. | 6 | ······ |
| Power, power for war | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Comes from these trees divine; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Power from the boughs, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Boughs where the dew-beads shine, | 6 | ······ |
| Power from the cones-- | 5 | /˘··· |
| Yea, from the breath of the pine! | 7 | ······· |
| Power to restore | 5 | /˘·˘/ |
| All that the white hand mars. | 6 | ······ |
| See the dead east | 4 | ···· |
| Crushed with the iron cars-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Chimneys black | 3 | /˘· |
| Blinding the sun and stars! | 6 | /˘···· |
| Hawk of the pines, | 4 | ···· |
| Hawk of the plain-winds fleet, | 6 | ······ |
| You shall be king | 4 | ···· |
| There in the iron street, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Factory and forge | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| Trodden beneath your feet. | 6 | /˘···· |
| There will proud trees | 4 | ···· |
| Grow as they grow by streams. | 6 | ······ |
| There will proud thoughts | 4 | ···· |
| Walk as in warrior dreams. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| There will proud deeds | 4 | ···· |
| Bloom as when battle gleams! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Warriors of Art, | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| We will hold council there, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Hewing in stone | 4 | /˘·· |
| Things to the trapper fair, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Painting the gray | 4 | /˘·· |
| Veils that the spring moons wear, | 6 | ······ |
| This our revenge, | 5 | ·/˘˘/ |
| This one tremendous change: | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Making new towns, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Lit with a star-fire strange, | 6 | ····/· |
| Wild as the dawn | 4 | ···· |
| Gilding the bison-range. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| All the young men | 4 | ···· |
| Chanting your cause that day, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Red-men, new-made | 4 | ···· |
| Out of the Saxon clay, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Strong and redeemed, | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Bold in your war-array! | 6 | ····˘/ |
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.