The Flag Goes by
Hats off!Along the street there comesA blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,A flash of colour beneath the sky:Hats off!The flag is passing by!
Blue and crimson and white it shinesOver the steel-tipped, ordered lines.Hats off!The colours before us fly;But more than the flag is passing by.
Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,Fought to make and to save the State:Weary marches and sinking ships;Cheers of victory on dying lips;
Days of plenty and years of peace;March of a strong land’s swift increase;Equal justice, right, and law,Stately honour and reverend awe;
Sign of a nation, great and strongToward her people from foreign wrong:Pride and glory and honour,--allLive in the colours to stand or fall.
Hats off!Along the street there comesA blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;And loyal hearts are beating high:Hats off!The flag is passing by!
Words in this poem
- blare v. i.
- To sound loudly and somewhat harshly. [OE. blaren, bloren, to cry, woop; cf. G. plärren to bleat, D. blaren to bleat, cry, weep. Prob. an imitative word, but cf. also E. blast. Cf. Blore.]
- 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.]
- reverend a.
- Worthy of reverence; entitled to respect mingled with fear and affection; venerable. [F. révérend, L. reverendus, fr. revereri. See Revere.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Flag Goes by is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, The Flag Goes by, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/the-flag-goes-by.html, id L25239.
Form and metre
The Flag Goes by is 29 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 ABBCAC offA · comesB · drumsB · skyC · offA · byC
- 2 AA-BB shinesA · linesA · off · flyB · byB
- 3 AABB greatA · stateA · shipsB · lipsB
- 4 AABB peaceA · increaseA · lawB · aweB
- 5 AABB strongA · wrongA · allB · fallB
- 6 ABBCAC offA · comesB · drumsB · highC · offA · byC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hats off! | 2 | ·· |
| Along the street there comes | 6 | ˘/···· |
| A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| A flash of colour beneath the sky: | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Hats off! | 2 | ·· |
| The flag is passing by! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Blue and crimson and white it shines | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Hats off! | 2 | ·· |
| The colours before us fly; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| But more than the flag is passing by. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great, | 8 | ········ |
| Fought to make and to save the State: | 8 | ········ |
| Weary marches and sinking ships; | 8 | /˘/˘·/˘· |
| Cheers of victory on dying lips; | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Days of plenty and years of peace; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| March of a strong land’s swift increase; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Equal justice, right, and law, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Stately honour and reverend awe; | 8 | /˘/˘·/˘· |
| Sign of a nation, great and strong | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Toward her people from foreign wrong: | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Pride and glory and honour,--all | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Live in the colours to stand or fall. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Hats off! | 2 | ·· |
| Along the street there comes | 6 | ˘/···· |
| A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums; | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| And loyal hearts are beating high: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Hats off! | 2 | ·· |
| The flag is passing by! | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.