Prelude: The Troops
Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloomShudders to drizzling daybreak that revealsDisconsolate men who stamp their sodden bootsAnd turn dulled, sunken faces to the skyHaggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten downThe stale despair of night, must now renewTheir desolation in the truce of dawn,Murdering the livid hours that grope for peace.
Yet these, who cling to life with stubborn hands,Can grin through storms of death and find a gapIn the clawed, cruel tangles of his defence.They march from safety, and the bird-sung joyOf grass-green thickets, to the land where allIs ruin, and nothing blossoms but the skyThat hastens over them where they endureSad, smoking, flat horizons, reeking woods,And foundered trench-lines volleying doom for doom.
O my brave brown companions, when your soulsFlock silently away, and the eyeless deadShame the wild beast of battle on the ridge,Death will stand grieving in that field of warSince your unvanquished hardihood is spent.And through some mooned Valhalla there will passBattalions and battalions, scarred from hell;The unreturning army that was youth;The legions who have suffered and are dust.
Words in this poem
- daybreak n.
- The time of the first appearance of light in the morning.
- disconsolate n.
- Disconsolateness. Barrow.
- haggard a.
- Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed; as, a haggard or refractory hawk. Shak [F. hagard; of German origin, and prop. meaning, of the hegde or woods, wild, untamed. See Hedge, 1st Haw, and -ard.]
- desolation n.
- The act of desolating or laying waste; destruction of inhabitants; depopulation. [F. désolation, L. desolatio.]
- grin n.
- A snare; a gin. [AS. grin.]
- clawed a.
- Furnished with claws. N. Grew.
- 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.]
- eyeless a.
- Without eyes; blind.
- hardihood n.
- Boldness, united with firmness and constancy of mind; bravery; intrepidity; also, audaciousness; impudence. [Hardy + -hood.]
- mooned a.
- Of or resembling the moon; symbolized by the moon.
- valhalla n.
- The palace of immortality, inhabited by the souls of heroes slain in battle. [Icel. valhöll, literally, hall of the slain; valr the slain (akin to AS. wæl, OHG. wal battlefield, wuol defeat, slaughter, AS. wol pestilence) + höll a royal h]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prelude: The Troops 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, Prelude: The Troops, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8930, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-counter-attack/prelude-the-troops.html, id L04688.
Form and metre
Prelude: The Troops is 26 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 58% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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.
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Shudders to drizzling daybreak that reveals | 10 | /˘·/˘/··˘/ |
| Disconsolate men who stamp their sodden boots | 11 | ˘/˘˘····/˘· |
| And turn dulled, sunken faces to the sky | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Haggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten down | 11 | /˘·/˘···/˘· |
| The stale despair of night, must now renew | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Their desolation in the truce of dawn, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Murdering the livid hours that grope for peace. | 10 | /˘·/˘/···· |
| Yet these, who cling to life with stubborn hands, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Can grin through storms of death and find a gap | 10 | ·········· |
| In the clawed, cruel tangles of his defence. | 10 | ···//˘··˘/ |
| They march from safety, and the bird-sung joy | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of grass-green thickets, to the land where all | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Is ruin, and nothing blossoms but the sky | 10 | ·/·/˘/˘··· |
| That hastens over them where they endure | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Sad, smoking, flat horizons, reeking woods, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| And foundered trench-lines volleying doom for doom. | 10 | ·/··/˘˘··· |
| O my brave brown companions, when your souls | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Flock silently away, and the eyeless dead | 10 | ·/˘˘/··/˘· |
| Shame the wild beast of battle on the ridge, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Death will stand grieving in that field of war | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Since your unvanquished hardihood is spent. | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| And through some mooned Valhalla there will pass | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Battalions and battalions, scarred from hell; | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘··· |
| The unreturning army that was youth; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The legions who have suffered and are dust. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
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