The Summons
Deeps of the wind-torn west,Flaming and desolate,Upsprings my soul from his restWith your banners at the gate.
'Neath this o'ermastering skyHow could the heart lie still,Or the sluggish willContent in the old chains lie,When over the lonely hillYour torn wild scarlets cry?Up, Soul, and out
Into the deeps alone,To the long peal and the shoutOf those trumpets blown and blown.
Words in this poem
- peal v. i.
- To appeal. Spencer.
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Summons is in the public domain. This text is taken from New Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59897; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charles G. D. Roberts, The Summons, in New Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59897, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/roberts-new-poems/the-summons.html, id L11138.
Form and metre
The Summons is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB westA · desolateB · restA · gateB
- 2 ABBABA- skyA · stillB · willB · lieA · hillB · cryA · out
- 3 A-A aloneA · shout · blownA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Deeps of the wind-torn west, | 6 | ······ |
| Flaming and desolate, | 6 | /˘·/˘˘ |
| Upsprings my soul from his rest | 7 | ······· |
| With your banners at the gate. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| 'Neath this o'ermastering sky | 7 | ······· |
| How could the heart lie still, | 6 | ······ |
| Or the sluggish will | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Content in the old chains lie, | 7 | /˘····· |
| When over the lonely hill | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Your torn wild scarlets cry? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Up, Soul, and out | 4 | ···· |
| Into the deeps alone, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| To the long peal and the shout | 7 | ······· |
| Of those trumpets blown and blown. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.