Before the Battle
Music of whispering treesHushed by the broad-winged breezeWhere shaken water gleams;And evening radiance fallingWith reedy bird-notes calling.O bear me safe through dark, you low-voiced streams.
I have no need to prayThat fear may pass away;I scorn the growl and rumble of the fightThat summons me from coolSilence of marsh and pool,And yellow lilies islanded in light.O river of stars and shadows, lead me through the night.
About this text
Before the Battle is in the public domain. This text is taken from The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon, Project Gutenberg ebook #45199; 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, Before the Battle, in The War Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45199, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-war-poems/before-the-battle.html, id L17229.
Form and metre
Before the Battle is 13 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 46% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AAB--B treesA · breezeA · gleamsB · falling · calling · streamsB
- 2 AABCCBB prayA · awayA · fightB · coolC · poolC · lightB · nightB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Music of whispering trees | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Hushed by the broad-winged breeze | 6 | ······ |
| Where shaken water gleams; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And evening radiance falling | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| With reedy bird-notes calling. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| O bear me safe through dark, you low-voiced streams. | 10 | ·········· |
| I have no need to pray | 6 | ······ |
| That fear may pass away; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| I scorn the growl and rumble of the fight | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That summons me from cool | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Silence of marsh and pool, | 6 | /˘···· |
| And yellow lilies islanded in light. | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘·· |
| O river of stars and shadows, lead me through the night. | 13 | ·/˘···/······ |
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.