The Muster: Suggested by the Two Days' Review at Washington
The Muster:Suggested by the Two Days’ Review at Washington(May, 1865.)
The Abrahamic river--Patriarch of floods,Calls the roll of all his streamsAnd watery mutitudes:Torrent cries to torrent,The rapids hail the fall;With shouts the inland freshetsGather to the call.
The quotas of the Nation,Like the water-shed of waves,Muster into union--Eastern warriors, Western braves.
Martial strains are mingling,Though distant far the bands,And the wheeling of the squadronsIs like surf upon the sands.
The bladed guns are gleaming--Drift in lengthened trim,Files on files for hazy miles--Nebulously dim.
O Milky Way of armies--Star rising after star,New banners of the Commonwealths,And eagles of the War.
The Abrahamic riverTo sea-wide fullness fed,Pouring from the thaw-landsBy the God of floods is led:His deep enforcing currentThe streams of ocean own,And Europe’s marge is evenedBy rills from Kansas lone.
Words in this poem
- muster n.
- Something shown for imitation; a pattern. [OE. moustre, OF. mostre, moustre, F. montre, LL. monstra. See Muster, v. t.]
- abrahamic a.
- Pertaining to Abraham, the patriarch; as, the Abrahamic covenant.
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
- hazy a.
- Thick with haze; somewhat obscured with haze; not clear or transparent. [From Haze, n.]
- marge n.
- Border; margin; edge; verge. [F. marge. See Margin.]
- kansas n.
- A tribe of Indians allied to the Winnebagoes and Osages. They formerly inhabited the region which is now the State of Kansas, but were removed to the Indian Territory.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Muster: Suggested by the Two Days' Review at Washington is in the public domain. This text is taken from Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, Project Gutenberg ebook #12384; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Herman Melville, The Muster: Suggested by the Two Days' Review at Washington, in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12384, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/melville-battle-pieces/the-muster-suggested-by-the-two-days-review-at-washington.html, id L26274.
Form and metre
The Muster: Suggested by the Two Days' Review at Washington is 35 lines in 7 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in trochaic 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.
- 2 -----A-A river · floods · streams · mutitudes · torrent · fallA · freshets · callA
- 3 -A-A nation · wavesA · union · bravesA
- 4 -A-A mingling · bandsA · squadrons · sandsA
- 5 -A-A gleaming · trimA · miles · dimA
- 7 -A-A-B-B river · fedA · lands · ledA · current · ownB · evened · loneB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Muster: | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Suggested by the Two Days’ Review at Washington | 12 | ˘/˘·····/·/˘ |
| (May, 1865.) | 1 | · |
| The Abrahamic river-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Patriarch of floods, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Calls the roll of all his streams | 7 | ······· |
| And watery mutitudes: | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Torrent cries to torrent, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| The rapids hail the fall; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| With shouts the inland freshets | 7 | ···/··· |
| Gather to the call. | 5 | /˘··· |
| The quotas of the Nation, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Like the water-shed of waves, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Muster into union-- | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Eastern warriors, Western braves. | 8 | /˘/˘˘/˘· |
| Martial strains are mingling, | 7 | /˘··/˘˘ |
| Though distant far the bands, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And the wheeling of the squadrons | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Is like surf upon the sands. | 7 | ······· |
| The bladed guns are gleaming-- | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Drift in lengthened trim, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Files on files for hazy miles-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Nebulously dim. | 5 | ····· |
| O Milky Way of armies-- | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Star rising after star, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| New banners of the Commonwealths, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And eagles of the War. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The Abrahamic river | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To sea-wide fullness fed, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Pouring from the thaw-lands | 6 | /˘···· |
| By the God of floods is led: | 7 | ······· |
| His deep enforcing current | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| The streams of ocean own, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And Europe’s marge is evened | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| By rills from Kansas lone. | 6 | ···/˘· |
On this poem
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.