The March
I heard a voice that cried, "Make way for those who died!"And all the coloured crowd like ghosts at morning fled;And down the waiting road, rank after rank there strode,In mute and measured march a hundred thousand dead.
A hundred thousand dead, with firm and noiseless tread,All shadowy-grey yet solid, with faces grey and ghast,And by the house they went, and all their brows were bentStraight forward; and they passed, and passed, and passed, and passed.
But O there came a place, and O there came a face,That clenched my heart to see it, and sudden turned my way;And in the Face that turned I saw two eyes that burned,Never-forgotten eyes, and they had things to say.
Like desolate stars they shone one moment, and were gone,And I sank down and put my arms across my head,And felt them moving past, nor looked to see the last,In steady silent march, our hundred thousand dead.
Words in this poem
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
- ghast v. t.
- To strike aghast; to affright. [OE. gasten. See Ghastly, a.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The March is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems - First Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #37860; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Collings Squire, The March, in Poems: First Series (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37860, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/squire-poems/the-march.html, id L23183.
Form and metre
The March is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is alexandrines, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in alexandrines.
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-A died · fledA · strode · deadA
- 2 -A-A tread · ghastA · bent · passedA
- 3 -A-A face · wayA · burned · sayA
- 4 -A-A gone · headA · last · deadA
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 alexandrines. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I heard a voice that cried, "Make way for those who died!" | 12 | ············ |
| And all the coloured crowd like ghosts at morning fled; | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| And down the waiting road, rank after rank there strode, | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| In mute and measured march a hundred thousand dead. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘/˘· |
| A hundred thousand dead, with firm and noiseless tread, | 12 | ·/˘/˘····/˘· |
| All shadowy-grey yet solid, with faces grey and ghast, | 13 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘··· |
| And by the house they went, and all their brows were bent | 12 | ············ |
| Straight forward; and they passed, and passed, and passed, and passed. | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| But O there came a place, and O there came a face, | 12 | ············ |
| That clenched my heart to see it, and sudden turned my way; | 13 | ········/˘··· |
| And in the Face that turned I saw two eyes that burned, | 12 | ············ |
| Never-forgotten eyes, and they had things to say. | 12 | /˘˘/˘······· |
| Like desolate stars they shone one moment, and were gone, | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
| And I sank down and put my arms across my head, | 12 | ········˘/·· |
| And felt them moving past, nor looked to see the last, | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| In steady silent march, our hundred thousand dead. | 12 | ·/˘/˘·//˘/˘· |
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.