The Returned Volunteer to His Rifle
Over the hearth--my father’s seat--Repose, to patriot-memory dear,Thou tried companion, whom at last I greetBy steepy banks of Hudson here.How oft I told thee of this scene--The Highlands blue--the river’s narrowing sheen.Little at Gettysburg we thoughtTo find such haven; but God kept it green.Long rest! with belt, and bayonet, and canteen.
Words in this poem
- steepy a.
- Steep; precipitous.
- narrowing n.
- The act of contracting, or of making or becoming less in breadth or extent.
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- canteen n.
- A vessel used by soldiers for carrying water, liquor, or other drink. [F. cantine bottle case, canteen (cf. Sp. & It. cantina cellar, bottle case), either contr. fr. It. canovettina, dim. of canova cellar, or, more likely, fr. OF. ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Returned Volunteer to His Rifle 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 Returned Volunteer to His Rifle, in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12384, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/melville-battle-pieces/the-returned-volunteer-to-his-rifle.html, id L26277.
Form and metre
The Returned Volunteer to His Rifle is 9 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCC-CC seatA · dearB · greetA · hereB · sceneC · sheenC · thought · greenC · canteenC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Over the hearth--my father’s seat-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Repose, to patriot-memory dear, | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Thou tried companion, whom at last I greet | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| By steepy banks of Hudson here. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| How oft I told thee of this scene-- | 8 | ········ |
| The Highlands blue--the river’s narrowing sheen. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Little at Gettysburg we thought | 8 | /˘·/˘˘·· |
| To find such haven; but God kept it green. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Long rest! with belt, and bayonet, and canteen. | 11 | ·····/˘··˘/ |
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.