Laurel · Henry John Newbolt · Poems: New and Old

Vae Victis

Henry John Newbolt (1862–1938) · 1912

iambic pentameter · ABABBCBCC · 65 lines · from Poems: New and Old

Beside the placid sea that mirrored herWith the old glory of dawn that cannot die,The sleeping city began to moan and stir,As one that fain from an ill dream would fly;Yet more she feared the daylight bringing nighSuch dreams as know not sunrise, soon or late,--Visions of honour lost and power gone by,Of loyal valour betrayed by factious hate,And craven sloth that shrank from the labour of forging fate.

They knew and knew not, this bewildered crowdThat up her streets in silence hurrying passed,What manner of death should make their anguish loud,What corpse across the funeral pyre be cast,For none had spoken it; only, gathering fastAs darkness gathers at noon in the sun's eclipse,A shadow of doom enfolded them, vague and vast,And a cry was heard, unfathered of earthly lips,What of the ships, O Carthage! Carthage, what of the ships?"

They reached the wall, and nowise strange it seemedTo find the gates unguarded and open wide;They climbed the shoulder, and meet enough they deemedThe black that shrouded the seaward rampart's sideAnd veiled in drooping gloom the turrets' pride;But this was nought, for suddenly down the slopeThey saw the harbour, and sense within them died;Keel nor mast was there, rudder nor rope;It lay like a sea-hawk's eyry spoiled of life and hope.

Beyond, where dawn was a glittering carpet, rolledFrom sky to shore on level and endless seas,Hardly their eyes discerned in a dazzle of goldThat here in fifties, yonder in twos and threes,The ships they sought, like a swarm of drowning beesBy a wanton gust on the pool of a mill-dam hurled,Floated forsaken of life-giving tide and breeze,Their oars broken, their sails for ever furled,For ever deserted the bulwarks that guarded the wealthof the world.

A moment yet, with breathing quickly drawnAnd hands agrip, the Carthaginian folkStared in the bright untroubled face of dawn,And strove with vehement heaped denial to chokeTheir sure surmise of fate's impending stroke;

Vainly--for even now beneath their gazeA thousand delicate spires of distant smokeReddened the disc of the sun with a stealthy haze,And the smouldering grief of a nation burst with thekindling blaze.

"O dying Carthage!" so their passion raved,"Would nought but these the conqueror's hate assuage?If these be taken, how may the land be savedWhose meat and drink was empire, age by age?"And bitter memory cursed with idle rageThe greed that coveted gold above renown,The feeble hearts that feared their heritage,The hands that cast the sea-kings' sceptre downAnd left to alien brows their famed ancestral crown.

The endless noon, the endless evening through,All other needs forgetting, great or small,They drank despair with thirst whose torment grewAs the hours died beneath that stifling pall.At last they saw the fires to blackness fallOne after one, and slowly turned them home,A little longer yet their own to callA city enslaved, and wear the bonds of Rome,With weary hearts foreboding all the woe to come.

Words in this poem 26

placid a.: Pleased; contented; unruffied; undisturbed; serene; peaceful; tranquil; quiet; gentle. [L. placidus, originally, pleasing, mild, from placere to please: cf. F. placide. See Please.]
fain v. t.: To be glad ; to wish or desire.
daylight n.: The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
honour n.: Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
craven v. t.: To make recreant, weak, spiritless, or cowardly.
corpse n.: A human body in general, whether living or dead; -- sometimes contemptuosly. [OF. cors (sometimes written corps), F. corps, L. corpus; akin to AS. hrif womb. See Midriff, and cf. Corse, Corselet, Corps, Cuerpo.]
pyre n.: A funeral pile; a combustible heap on which the dead are burned; hence, any pile to be burnt. [L. pure, Gr. Fire.]
unfathered a.: Having no father; fatherless; hence, born contrary to nature.
nowise adv.: Not in any manner or degree; in no way; noways. [For in no wise. See Wise, n.]
seaward a.: Directed or situated toward the sea. Donne.
veiled a.: Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
harbour n.: A station for rest and entertainment; a place of security and comfort; a refuge; a shelter. [OE herbor, herberwe, herberge, Icel. herbergi (cf. OHG. heriberga), orig., a shelter for soldiers; herr army + bjarga to save, help, defend; akin to AS. here ar]
eyry n.: The nest of a bird of prey or other large bird that builds in a lofty place; aerie. [See Aerie]
dazzle v. t.: To overpower with light; to confuse the sight of by brilliance of light. [Freq. of daze.]
yonder adv.: At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
wealth n.: Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
carthaginian a.: Of a pertaining to ancient Carthage, a city of northern Africa.
folk n.: In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
disc n.: A flat round plate; (Biol.) [See Disk, Dish.]
smouldering a.: Being in a state of suppressed activity; quiet but not dead.
cursed a.: Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
greed n.: An eager desire or longing; greediness; as, a greed of gain. [Akin to Goth. grdus hunger, Icel. graedhr. sq. root34. See Greedy.]
heritage a.: That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
sceptre n.: A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. [F. sceptre, L. sceptrum, from Gr. shaft. See Shaft, and cf. Scape a stem, shaft.]
needs adv.: Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
drank n.: Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Vae Victis 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, Vae Victis, in Poems: New and Old (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24405, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/newbolt-poems/vae-victis.html, id L11397.

Form and metre

Vae Victis is 65 lines in 8 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABABBCBCC, complete in 5 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 37% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

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 ABABBCBCC her^A · die^B · stir^A · fly^B · nigh^B · late^C · by^B · hate^C · fate^C
2 ABABBCBCC crowd^A · passed^B · loud^A · cast^B · fast^B · eclipse^C · vast^B · lips^C · ships^C
3 ABABBCBCC seemed^A · wide^B · deemed^A · side^B · pride^B · slope^C · died^B · rope^C · hope^C
4 ABABBCBC-C rolled^A · seas^B · gold^A · threes^B · bees^B · hurled^C · breeze^B · furled^C · wealth · world^C
5 ABABB drawn^A · folk^B · dawn^A · choke^B · stroke^B
6 A-A-A gaze^A · smoke · haze^A · the · blaze^A
7 ABABBCBCC raved^A · assuage^B · saved^A · age^B · rage^B · renown^C · heritage^B · down^C · crown^C
8 ABABBCBCC through^A · small^B · grew^A · pall^B · fall^B · home^C · call^B · rome^C · come^C

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
Beside the placid sea that mirrored her	10	˘/·/˘··/˘·
With the old glory of dawn that cannot die,	11	···/˘···˘/·
The sleeping city began to moan and stir,	11	·/˘/˘˘/····
As one that fain from an ill dream would fly;	10	··········
Yet more she feared the daylight bringing nigh	10	·····/·/˘·
Such dreams as know not sunrise, soon or late,--	10	·····/····
Visions of honour lost and power gone by,	10	/˘·/˘··/··
Of loyal valour betrayed by factious hate,	11	·/˘/˘˘/·/˘·
And craven sloth that shrank from the labour of forging fate.	14	·/˘·····/··/˘·
They knew and knew not, this bewildered crowd	10	······˘/˘·
That up her streets in silence hurrying passed,	10	·····/˘/˘·
What manner of death should make their anguish loud,	11	·/˘·····/˘·
What corpse across the funeral pyre be cast,	10	··˘/·/˘/··
For none had spoken it; only, gathering fast	11	···/˘·/˘/˘·
As darkness gathers at noon in the sun's eclipse,	12	·/˘/˘·····˘/
A shadow of doom enfolded them, vague and vast,	12	·/···˘/˘····
And a cry was heard, unfathered of earthly lips,	12	·····˘/˘·/˘·
What of the ships, O Carthage! Carthage, what of the ships?"	13	·····/˘/˘····
They reached the wall, and nowise strange it seemed	10	·····/˘···
To find the gates unguarded and open wide;	11	····˘/˘·/˘·
They climbed the shoulder, and meet enough they deemed	11	···/˘··˘/··
The black that shrouded the seaward rampart's side	11	···/˘·/˘/··
And veiled in drooping gloom the turrets' pride;	10	···/˘··/˘·
But this was nought, for suddenly down the slope	10	·····/˘···
They saw the harbour, and sense within them died;	11	···/˘······
Keel nor mast was there, rudder nor rope;	9	·····/˘··
It lay like a sea-hawk's eyry spoiled of life and hope.	13	·············
Beyond, where dawn was a glittering carpet, rolled	11	······/˘/˘·
From sky to shore on level and endless seas,	11	·····/˘·/˘·
Hardly their eyes discerned in a dazzle of gold	12	/˘··˘/··/˘··
That here in fifties, yonder in twos and threes,	11	···/˘/˘····
The ships they sought, like a swarm of drowning bees	11	········/˘·
By a wanton gust on the pool of a mill-dam hurled,	13	··/˘·········
Floated forsaken of life-giving tide and breeze,	12	/˘˘/˘··/˘···
Their oars broken, their sails for ever furled,	10	··/˘···/˘·
For ever deserted the bulwarks that guarded the wealth	13	·/˘/˘·/˘·/˘··
of the world.	3	···
A moment yet, with breathing quickly drawn	10	·/˘··/˘/˘·
And hands agrip, the Carthaginian folk	10	······˘/˘·
Stared in the bright untroubled face of dawn,	10	····˘/˘···
And strove with vehement heaped denial to choke	11	···/˘·˘/˘··
Their sure surmise of fate's impending stroke;	10	··˘/··˘/˘·
Vainly--for even now beneath their gaze	10	/˘·/˘·····
A thousand delicate spires of distant smoke	10	·/˘/˘··/˘·
Reddened the disc of the sun with a stealthy haze,	12	/˘·······/˘·
And the smouldering grief of a nation burst with the	13	········/˘···
kindling blaze.	3	/˘·
"O dying Carthage!" so their passion raved,	10	·/˘/˘··/˘·
"Would nought but these the conqueror's hate assuage?	10	·····/˘·˘/
If these be taken, how may the land be saved	11	···/˘······
Whose meat and drink was empire, age by age?"	10	·····/˘···
And bitter memory cursed with idle rage	10	·/˘/˘··/˘·
The greed that coveted gold above renown,	10	···/˘···˘/
The feeble hearts that feared their heritage,	10	·/˘····/˘˘
The hands that cast the sea-kings' sceptre down	10	·······/˘·
And left to alien brows their famed ancestral crown.	12	···/˘···˘/˘·
The endless noon, the endless evening through,	10	·/˘··/˘/˘·
All other needs forgetting, great or small,	10	·/˘·˘/˘···
They drank despair with thirst whose torment grew	10	··˘/···/··
As the hours died beneath that stifling pall.	10	··/····/˘·
At last they saw the fires to blackness fall	10	·····/·/˘·
One after one, and slowly turned them home,	10	·····/˘···
A little longer yet their own to call	10	·/˘/˘·····
A city enslaved, and wear the bonds of Rome,	11	·/˘˘/······
With weary hearts foreboding all the woe to come.	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.

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