Coucy
The rooks aclamor when one enters hereStartle the empty towers far overhead;Through gaping walls the summer fields appear,Green, tan, or, poppy-mingled, tinged with red.The courts where revel rang deep grass and mossCover, and tangled vines have overgrownThe gate where banners blazoned with a crossRolled forth to toss round Tyre and Ascalon.Decay consumes it. The old causes fade.And fretting for the contest many a heartWaits their Tyrtaeus to chant on the new.Oh, pass him by who, in this haunted shadeMusing enthralled, has only this much art,To love the things the birds and flowers love too.
Words in this poem
- tyre n.
- Attire. See 2d and 3d Tire.
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Coucy 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, Coucy, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/coucy.html, id L12956.
Form and metre
Coucy is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 43% 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 ABABC-C-DEFDEF hereA · overheadB · appearA · redB · mossC · overgrown · crossC · ascalon · fadeD · heartE · newF · shadeD · artE · tooF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The rooks aclamor when one enters here | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Startle the empty towers far overhead; | 10 | /˘·/˘/·/˘/ |
| Through gaping walls the summer fields appear, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Green, tan, or, poppy-mingled, tinged with red. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The courts where revel rang deep grass and moss | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Cover, and tangled vines have overgrown | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| The gate where banners blazoned with a cross | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Rolled forth to toss round Tyre and Ascalon. | 10 | ·········· |
| Decay consumes it. The old causes fade. | 10 | ˘/˘/···/˘· |
| And fretting for the contest many a heart | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/·· |
| Waits their Tyrtaeus to chant on the new. | 9 | ········· |
| Oh, pass him by who, in this haunted shade | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Musing enthralled, has only this much art, | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘··· |
| To love the things the birds and flowers love too. | 10 | ·······/·· |
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.