Cavalier
All the merry kettle-drums are thudding into rhyme,Dust is swimming dizzily down the village street,The scabbards are clattering, the feathers nodding time,To a clink of many horses’ shoes, a tramp of many feet.
Seven score of Cavaliers fighting for the King,Trolling lusty stirrup-songs, clamouring for wine,Riding with a loose rein, marching with a swing,Beneath the blue bannerol of Rupert of the Rhine.
Hey the merry company;--the loud fifes playing--Blue scarves and bright steel and blossom of the may,Roses in the feathered hats, the long plumes swaying,A king’s son ahead of them showing them the way.
Words in this poem
- dizzily adv.
- In a dizzy manner or state.
- 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.]
- bannerol n.
- A banderole; esp. a banner displayed at a funeral procession and set over the tomb. See Banderole.
- ahead adv.
- In or to the front; in advance; onward. [Pref. a- + head.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Cavalier is in the public domain. This text is taken from Salt-Water Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #52761; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Masefield, Cavalier, in Salt-Water Ballads (1902), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #52761, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-salt-water/cavalier.html, id L12690.
Form and metre
Cavalier is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB rhymeA · streetB · timeA · feetB
- 2 ABAB kingA · wineB · swingA · rhineB
- 3 ABAB playingA · mayB · swayingA · wayB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| All the merry kettle-drums are thudding into rhyme, | 13 | ··/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Dust is swimming dizzily down the village street, | 12 | ··/˘/˘˘··/˘· |
| The scabbards are clattering, the feathers nodding time, | 12 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘/˘· |
| To a clink of many horses’ shoes, a tramp of many feet. | 13 | ····//˘····/· |
| Seven score of Cavaliers fighting for the King, | 12 | /˘···˘//˘··· |
| Trolling lusty stirrup-songs, clamouring for wine, | 12 | /˘/˘/˘·/˘˘·· |
| Riding with a loose rein, marching with a swing, | 11 | /˘····/˘··· |
| Beneath the blue bannerol of Rupert of the Rhine. | 13 | ····/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Hey the merry company;--the loud fifes playing-- | 12 | ··/˘/˘˘···/˘ |
| Blue scarves and bright steel and blossom of the may, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Roses in the feathered hats, the long plumes swaying, | 12 | /˘··/˘····/˘ |
| A king’s son ahead of them showing them the way. | 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.