Ionicus
I live--I am old--I return to the ground--Blow trumpets! and still I can dream to the sound.
With failing feet and shoulders bowedBeneath the weight of happier days,He lagged among the heedless crowd,Or crept along suburban ways.But still through all his heart was young,His mood a joy that nought could mar,A courage, a pride, a rapture, sprungOf the strength and splendour of England's war.
From ill-requited toil he turnedTo ride with Picton and with Pack,Among his grammars inly burnedTo storm the Afghan mountain-track.When midnight chimed, before QuebecHe watched with Wolfe till the morning star;At noon he saw from Victory's deckThe sweep and splendour of England's war.
Beyond the book his teaching sped,He left on whom he taught the traceOf kinship with the deathless dead,And faith in all the Island Race.He passed: his life a tangle seemed,His age from fame and power was far;But his heart was high to the end, and dreamedOf the sound and splendour of England's war.
Words in this poem
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- suburban a.
- Of or pertaining to suburbs; inhabiting, or being in, the suburbs of a city. [L. suburbanus.]
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- inly a.
- Internal; interior; secret. [OE. inlich, AS. inlic. See In.]
- afghan a.
- Of or pertaining to Afghanistan.
- kinship n.
- Family relationship.
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- tangle v. t.
- To unite or knit together confusedly; to interweave or interlock, as threads, so as to make it difficult to unravel the knot; to entangle; to ravel. [A frequentative fr. tang seaweed; hence, to twist like seaweed. See Tang seaweed, and cf. Tangle, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ionicus is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems: New and Old, Project Gutenberg ebook #24405; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry John Newbolt, Ionicus, in Poems: New and Old (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24405, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/newbolt-poems/ionicus.html, id L11408.
Form and metre
Ionicus is 26 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 1 AA groundA · soundA
- 2 ABABC-C- bowedA · daysB · crowdA · waysB · youngC · mar · sprungC · war
- 3 ABABC-C- turnedA · packB · burnedA · trackB · quebecC · star · deckC · war
- 4 ABABC-C- spedA · traceB · deadA · raceB · seemedC · far · dreamedC · war
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I live--I am old--I return to the ground-- | 11 | ······˘/··· |
| Blow trumpets! and still I can dream to the sound. | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| With failing feet and shoulders bowed | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·˘ |
| Beneath the weight of happier days, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| He lagged among the heedless crowd, | 9 | ··˘···/˘· |
| Or crept along suburban ways. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| But still through all his heart was young, | 8 | ········ |
| His mood a joy that nought could mar, | 8 | ········ |
| A courage, a pride, a rapture, sprung | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Of the strength and splendour of England's war. | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| From ill-requited toil he turned | 9 | ········˘ |
| To ride with Picton and with Pack, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Among his grammars inly burned | 9 | ···/˘/˘·˘ |
| To storm the Afghan mountain-track. | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| When midnight chimed, before Quebec | 9 | ·/··˘··˘/ |
| He watched with Wolfe till the morning star; | 10 | ··˘····/˘· |
| At noon he saw from Victory's deck | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| The sweep and splendour of England's war. | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Beyond the book his teaching sped, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He left on whom he taught the trace | 8 | ········ |
| Of kinship with the deathless dead, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| And faith in all the Island Race. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He passed: his life a tangle seemed, | 10 | ··˘···/˘·˘ |
| His age from fame and power was far; | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| But his heart was high to the end, and dreamed | 10 | ·········· |
| Of the sound and splendour of England's war. | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
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.