In Barracks
The barrack-square, washed clean with rain,Shines wet and wintry-grey and cold.Young Fusiliers, strong-legged and bold,March and wheel and march again.The sun looks over the barrack gate,Warm and white with glaring shine,To watch the soldiers of the LineThat life has hired to fight with fate.
Fall out: the long parades are done.Up comes the dark; down goes the sun.The square is walled with windowed light.Sleep well, you lusty Fusiliers;Shut your brave eyes on sense and sight,And banish from your dreamless earsThe bugle's lying notes that say,"Another night; another day."
Words in this poem
- barrack n.
- A building for soldiers, especially when in garrison. Commonly in the pl., originally meaning temporary huts, but now usually applied to a permanent structure or set of buildings. [F. baraque, fr. It. baracca (cf. Sp. barraca), from LL. barra bar. See Bar, n.]
- glaring a.
- Clear; notorious; open and bold; barefaced; as, a glaring crime.
- windowed a.
- Having windows or openings.
- dreamless a.
- Free from, or without, dreams. Camden.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Barracks is in the public domain. This text is taken from Counter-Attack and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8930; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Siegfried Sassoon, In Barracks, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8930, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-counter-attack/in-barracks.html, id L04724.
Form and metre
In Barracks is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBACDDC rainA · coldB · boldB · againA · gateC · shineD · lineD · fateC
- 2 AABCBCDD doneA · sunA · lightB · fusiliersC · sightB · earsC · sayD · dayD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The barrack-square, washed clean with rain, | 9 | ·/˘··˘··· |
| Shines wet and wintry-grey and cold. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Young Fusiliers, strong-legged and bold, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| March and wheel and march again. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| The sun looks over the barrack gate, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Warm and white with glaring shine, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| To watch the soldiers of the Line | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That life has hired to fight with fate. | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Fall out: the long parades are done. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Up comes the dark; down goes the sun. | 8 | ········ |
| The square is walled with windowed light. | 10 | ····˘·/˘˘· |
| Sleep well, you lusty Fusiliers; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Shut your brave eyes on sense and sight, | 8 | ········ |
| And banish from your dreamless ears | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The bugle's lying notes that say, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| "Another night; another day." | 8 | ˘/˘·˘/˘· |
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.