The Last Battle
Kings of the earth, Kings of the earth, the trumpet rings for warning,And like the golden swords that ray from out the setting sunThe shout goes out of the trumpet mouth across the hills of morning,Wake; for the last great battle dawns and all the wars are done.
Now all the plains of Europe smoke with marching hooves of thunder,And through each ragged mountain-gorge the guns begin to gleam;And round a hundred cities where the women watch and wonder,The tramp of passing armies aches and faints into a dream.
The King of Ind is drawing nigh: a hundred leagues are cloudedAlong his loud earth-shaking march from east to western sea:The King o' the Setting Sun is here and all the seas are shroudedWith sails that carry half the world to front Eternity.
Soon shall the darkness roll around the grappling of the nations,A darkness lit with deadly gleams of blood and steel and fire;Soon shall the last great pæan of earth's war-worn generationsRoar through the thunder-clouded air round War's red funeral pyre.
But here defeat and victory are both allied with heaven,The enfolding sky makes every foe the centre of her dome,Each fights for God and his own right, and unto each is givenThe right to find the heart of heaven where'er he finds his home.
O, who shall win, and who shall lose, and who shall take the gloryHere at the meeting of the roads, where every cause is right?O, who shall live, and who shall die, and who shall tell the story?Each strikes for faith and fatherland in that immortal fight.
High on the grey old hills of Time the last immortal rally,Under the storm of the last great tattered flag, shall laugh to seeThe blood of Armageddon roll from every smoking valley,Shall laugh aloud, then rush on death for God and chivalry.
Kings of the earth, Kings of the earth, O, which of you thenshall inheritThe Kingdom, the Power and the Glory? for the world's old lightgrows dimAnd the cry of you all goes up all night to the dark enfolding Spirit,Each of you fights for God and home; but God, ah, what of Him?
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- pyre n.
- A funeral pile; a combustible heap on which the dead are burned; hence, any pile to be burnt. [L. pure, Gr. Fire.]
- defeat v. t.
- To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- fatherland n.
- One's native land; the native land of one's fathers or ancestors. [Imitated fr. D. vaderland. See Father, and Land.]
- rally v. t.
- To collect, and reduce to order, as troops dispersed or thrown into confusion; to gather again; to reunite. [OF. ralier, F. rallier, fr. L. pref. re- + ad + ligare to bind. See Ra-, and 1st Ally.]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Last Battle is in the public domain. This text is taken from Collected Poems: Volume One, Project Gutenberg ebook #30501; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Noyes, The Last Battle, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/the-last-battle.html, id L21431.
Form and metre
The Last Battle is 34 lines in 8 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 ABAB warningA · sunB · morningA · doneB
- 2 ABAB thunderA · gleamB · wonderA · dreamB
- 3 A-A- cloudedA · sea · shroudedA · eternity
- 4 ABAB nationsA · fireB · generationsA · pyreB
- 5 -A-A heaven · domeA · given · homeA
- 6 ABAB gloryA · rightB · storyA · fightB
- 7 A-A- rallyA · see · valleyA · chivalry
- 8 -AABAB then · inheritA · lightA · dimB · spiritA · himB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Kings of the earth, Kings of the earth, the trumpet rings for warning, | 15 | ·········/˘··/˘ |
| And like the golden swords that ray from out the setting sun | 14 | ···/˘······/˘· |
| The shout goes out of the trumpet mouth across the hills of morning, | 16 | ······/˘·˘/···/˘ |
| Wake; for the last great battle dawns and all the wars are done. | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| Now all the plains of Europe smoke with marching hooves of thunder, | 15 | ·····/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| And through each ragged mountain-gorge the guns begin to gleam; | 15 | ···/˘˘/˘···˘/·· |
| And round a hundred cities where the women watch and wonder, | 15 | ···/˘/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| The tramp of passing armies aches and faints into a dream. | 14 | ···/˘/˘······· |
| The King of Ind is drawing nigh: a hundred leagues are clouded | 15 | ·····/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Along his loud earth-shaking march from east to western sea: | 14 | ˘/···/˘····/˘· |
| The King o' the Setting Sun is here and all the seas are shrouded | 16 | ····/˘········/˘ |
| With sails that carry half the world to front Eternity. | 14 | ···/˘·····˘/˘˘ |
| Soon shall the darkness roll around the grappling of the nations, | 15 | ···/˘····/˘··/˘ |
| A darkness lit with deadly gleams of blood and steel and fire; | 15 | ·/˘··/˘······/˘ |
| Soon shall the last great pæan of earth's war-worn generations | 14 | ···········˘/˘ |
| Roar through the thunder-clouded air round War's red funeral pyre. | 16 | ···/˘/˘····/˘˘/˘ |
| But here defeat and victory are both allied with heaven, | 15 | ··˘/·/˘˘··˘/·/˘ |
| The enfolding sky makes every foe the centre of her dome, | 15 | ·˘/˘··/˘··/˘··· |
| Each fights for God and his own right, and unto each is given | 15 | ·············/˘ |
| The right to find the heart of heaven where'er he finds his home. | 15 | ·······/˘˘/···· |
| O, who shall win, and who shall lose, and who shall take the glory | 15 | ·············/˘ |
| Here at the meeting of the roads, where every cause is right? | 15 | ···/˘····/˘˘··· |
| O, who shall live, and who shall die, and who shall tell the story? | 15 | ·············/˘ |
| Each strikes for faith and fatherland in that immortal fight. | 14 | ·····/˘···˘/˘· |
| High on the grey old hills of Time the last immortal rally, | 15 | ··········˘/˘/˘ |
| Under the storm of the last great tattered flag, shall laugh to see | 15 | ········/˘····· |
| The blood of Armageddon roll from every smoking valley, | 16 | ····˘/˘··/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| Shall laugh aloud, then rush on death for God and chivalry. | 14 | ··˘/·······/˘˘ |
| Kings of the earth, Kings of the earth, O, which of you then | 13 | ············· |
| shall inherit | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory? for the world's old light | 15 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘····· |
| grows dim | 2 | ·· |
| And the cry of you all goes up all night to the dark enfolding Spirit, | 17 | ·············˘/˘/ |
| Each of you fights for God and home; but God, ah, what of Him? | 14 | ·············· |
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.