Lament of the Frontier Guard
By the North Gate, the wind blows full of sand,Lonely from the beginning of time until now!Trees fall, the grass goes yellow with autumn.I climb the towers and towersto watch out the barbarous land:Desolate castle, the sky, the wide desert.There is no wall left to this village.Bones white with a thousand frosts,High heaps, covered with trees and grass;Who brought this to pass?Who has brought the flaming imperial anger?Who has brought the army with drums and with kettle-drums?Barbarous kings.A gracious spring, turned to blood-ravenous autumn,A turmoil of wars-men, spread over the middle kingdom,Three hundred and sixty thousand,And sorrow, sorrow like rain.Sorrow to go, and sorrow, sorrow returning,Desolate, desolate fields,And no children of warfare upon them,No longer the men for offence and defence.Ah, how shall you know the dreary sorrow at theNorth Gate,With Rihoku’s name forgotten,And we guardsmen fed to the tigers.
Words in this poem
- turmoil v. t.
- To harass with commotion; to disquiet; to worry.
- offence n.
- The act of offending in any sense; esp., a crime or a sin, an affront or an injury. [F., fr. L. offensa. See Offend.]
- defence n.
- The act of defending, or the state of being defended; protection, as from violence or danger. [F. défense, OF. defense, fem., defens, masc., fr. L. defensa (cf. Fence.]
- 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,]
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lament of the Frontier Guard is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lustra of Ezra Pound, Project Gutenberg ebook #55564; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ezra Pound, Lament of the Frontier Guard, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/lament-of-the-frontier-guard.html, id L01313.
Form and metre
Lament of the Frontier Guard is 25 lines in a single stanza. 77% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.2 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 A-B-A---CC---B----------- sandA · now · autumnB · towers · landA · desert · village · frosts · grassC · passC · anger · drums · kings · autumnB · kingdom · thousand · rain · returning · fields · them · defence · the · gate · forgotten · tigers
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| By the North Gate, the wind blows full of sand, | 10 | ·········· |
| Lonely from the beginning of time until now! | 12 | /˘··˘/˘····· |
| Trees fall, the grass goes yellow with autumn. | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| I climb the towers and towers | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| to watch out the barbarous land: | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Desolate castle, the sky, the wide desert. | 11 | /˘˘/˘····/˘ |
| There is no wall left to this village. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Bones white with a thousand frosts, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| High heaps, covered with trees and grass; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Who brought this to pass? | 5 | ····· |
| Who has brought the flaming imperial anger? | 12 | ····/˘˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Who has brought the army with drums and with kettle-drums? | 13 | ····/˘····/˘· |
| Barbarous kings. | 4 | /˘˘· |
| A gracious spring, turned to blood-ravenous autumn, | 12 | ·/˘····/˘˘/˘ |
| A turmoil of wars-men, spread over the middle kingdom, | 14 | ·/········/˘/˘ |
| Three hundred and sixty thousand, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| And sorrow, sorrow like rain. | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Sorrow to go, and sorrow, sorrow returning, | 12 | /˘···/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Desolate, desolate fields, | 7 | /˘˘/˘˘· |
| And no children of warfare upon them, | 10 | ··/˘·/···· |
| No longer the men for offence and defence. | 11 | ·/˘···˘/·˘/ |
| Ah, how shall you know the dreary sorrow at the | 12 | ······/˘/˘·· |
| North Gate, | 2 | ·· |
| With Rihoku’s name forgotten, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| And we guardsmen fed to the tigers. | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
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.