Broceliande
Broceliande! in the perilous beauty of silence and menacing shade,Thou art set on the shores of the sea down the hazeof horizons untravelled, unscanned.Untroubled, untouched with the woes of this worldare the moon-marshalled hosts that invadeBroceliande.
Only at dusk, when lavender clouds in the orient twilight disband,Vanishing where all the blue afternoon they have drifted in solemn parade,Sometimes a whisper comes down on the wind from the valleys of Fairyland ----
Sometimes an echo most mournful and faint like the horn of a huntsman strayed,Faint and forlorn, half drowned in the murmur of foliage fitfully fanned,Breathes in a burden of nameless regret till I startle,disturbed and affrayed:Broceliande --Broceliande --Broceliande. . . .
Words in this poem
- disband v. t.
- To loose the bands of; to set free; to disunite; to scatter; to disperse; to break up the organization of; especially, to dismiss from military service; as, to disband an army. [Pref. dis- + band: cf. OF. desbander, F. débander, to unbind, unbend. See Band, and cf. Disbend, Disbind.]
- afternoon n.
- The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
- fairyland n.
- The imaginary land or abode of fairies.
- huntsman n.
- One who hunts, or who practices hunting.
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- nameless a.
- Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Broceliande is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #617; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alan Seeger, Broceliande, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/broceliande.html, id L12968.
Form and metre
Broceliande is 16 lines in 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 A-B-AB shadeA · haze · unscannedB · world · invadeA · broceliandeB
- 2 A-A disbandA · parade · fairylandA
- 3 AB-ABBB strayedA · fannedB · startle · affrayedA · broceliandeB · broceliandeB · broceliandeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Broceliande! in the perilous beauty of silence and menacing shade, | 16 | ·····/˘/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Thou art set on the shores of the sea down the haze | 12 | ············ |
| of horizons untravelled, unscanned. | 9 | ·˘/˘····· |
| Untroubled, untouched with the woes of this world | 11 | ˘/˘˘/······ |
| are the moon-marshalled hosts that invade | 9 | ···/˘··˘/ |
| Broceliande. | 3 | ··· |
| Only at dusk, when lavender clouds in the orient twilight disband, | 17 | /˘···/˘···/˘·/·˘/ |
| Vanishing where all the blue afternoon they have drifted in solemn parade, | 18 | /˘·····˘/··/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Sometimes a whisper comes down on the wind from the valleys of Fairyland ---- | 18 | ˘/·/˘·······/˘·/˘· |
| Sometimes an echo most mournful and faint like the horn of a huntsman strayed, | 18 | ˘/·/˘·/˘·······/˘· |
| Faint and forlorn, half drowned in the murmur of foliage fitfully fanned, | 16 | ··˘/····/˘·/˘/˘· |
| Breathes in a burden of nameless regret till I startle, | 14 | ···/˘·/˘˘/··/˘ |
| disturbed and affrayed: | 4 | ˘/·· |
| Broceliande -- | 3 | ··· |
| Broceliande -- | 3 | ··· |
| Broceliande. . . . | 3 | ··· |
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.