Canto Sixth: The Guard-room III
These drew not for their fields the sword,Like tenants of a feudal lord,Nor owned the patriarchal claimOf Chieftain in their leader's name;Adventurers they, from far who roved,To live by battle which they loved.There the Italian's clouded face,The swarthy Spaniard's there you trace;The mountain-loving Switzer thereMore freely breathed in mountain-air;The Fleming there despised the soilThat paid so ill the labourer's toil;Their rolls showed French and German name;And merry England's exiles came,To share, with ill-concealed disdain,Of Scotland's pay the scanty gain.All brave in arms, well trained to wieldThe heavy halberd, brand, and shield;In camps licentious, wild, and bold;In pillage fierce and uncontrolled;And now, by holytide and feast,From rules of discipline released.
Words in this poem
- switzer n.
- A native or inhabitant of Switzerland; a Swiss. [Cf. G. schweizer. Cf. Swiss.]
- wield v. t.
- To govern; to rule; to keep, or have in charge; also, to possess. [OE. welden to govern, to have power over, to possess, AS. geweldan, gewyldan, from wealdan; akin to OS. waldan, OFries. walda, G. walten, OHG. waltan, Icel. val]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto Sixth: The Guard-room III is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Lady of the Lake, Project Gutenberg ebook #3011; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter Scott, Canto Sixth: The Guard-room III, in The Lady of the Lake (1810), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3011, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/scott-lady-of-the-lake/canto-sixth-the-guard-room-iii.html, id L06651.
Form and metre
Canto Sixth: The Guard-room III is 22 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 91% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABB--CCDDEEBBFFGGHHII swordA · lordA · claimB · nameB · roved · loved · faceC · traceC · thereD · airD · soilE · toilE · nameB · cameB · disdainF · gainF · wieldG · shieldG · boldH · uncontrolledH · feastI · releasedI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| These drew not for their fields the sword, | 8 | ········ |
| Like tenants of a feudal lord, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Nor owned the patriarchal claim | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Of Chieftain in their leader's name; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Adventurers they, from far who roved, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| To live by battle which they loved. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| There the Italian's clouded face, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| The swarthy Spaniard's there you trace; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The mountain-loving Switzer there | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| More freely breathed in mountain-air; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The Fleming there despised the soil | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| That paid so ill the labourer's toil; | 9 | ········· |
| Their rolls showed French and German name; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And merry England's exiles came, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/·· |
| To share, with ill-concealed disdain, | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| Of Scotland's pay the scanty gain. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| All brave in arms, well trained to wield | 8 | ········ |
| The heavy halberd, brand, and shield; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| In camps licentious, wild, and bold; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| In pillage fierce and uncontrolled; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And now, by holytide and feast, | 8 | ········ |
| From rules of discipline released. | 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.