Sir Giles' War-Song
Ho! is there any will ride with me,Sir Giles, le bon des barrieres?
The clink of arms is good to hear,The flap of pennons fair to see;Ho! is there any will ride with me,Sir Giles, le bon des barrieres?
The leopards and lilies are fair to see;St. George Guienne! right good to hear:Ho! is there any will ride with me,Sir Giles, le bon des barrieres?
I stood by the barrier,My coat being blazon'd fair to see;Ho! is there any will ride with me,Sir Giles, le bon des barrieres?
Clisson put out his head to see,And lifted his basnet up to hear;I pull'd him through the bars to ME,Sir Giles; le bon des barrieres.
Words in this poem
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sir Giles' War-Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22650; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Morris, Sir Giles' War-Song, in The Defence of Guenevere (1858), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/morris-defence-guenevere/sir-giles-war-song.html, id L07157.
Form and metre
Sir Giles' War-Song is 18 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic 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 -AA- hear · seeA · meA · barrieres
- 3 A-A- seeA · hear · meA · barrieres
- 4 -AA- barrier · seeA · meA · barrieres
- 5 A-A- seeA · hear · meA · barrieres
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ho! is there any will ride with me, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Sir Giles, le bon des barrieres? | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The clink of arms is good to hear, | 8 | ········ |
| The flap of pennons fair to see; | 8 | ········ |
| Ho! is there any will ride with me, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Sir Giles, le bon des barrieres? | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The leopards and lilies are fair to see; | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| St. George Guienne! right good to hear: | 7 | ······· |
| Ho! is there any will ride with me, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Sir Giles, le bon des barrieres? | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| I stood by the barrier, | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| My coat being blazon'd fair to see; | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Ho! is there any will ride with me, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Sir Giles, le bon des barrieres? | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Clisson put out his head to see, | 8 | ········ |
| And lifted his basnet up to hear; | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| I pull'd him through the bars to ME, | 8 | ········ |
| Sir Giles; le bon des barrieres. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
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.