The Armada I
But the Lord of darkness, the God whose love is a flaming fire,The master whose mercy fulfils wide hell till its torturers tire,He shall surely have heed of his servants who serve him for love,not hire.
They shall fetter the wing of the wind whose pinions are plumedwith foam:For now shall thy horn be exalted, and now shall thy bolt strikehome;Yea, now shall thy kingdom come, Lord God of the priests of Rome.
They shall cast thy curb on the waters, and bridle the waves of thesea:They shall say to her, Peace, be still: and stillness and peaceshall be:And the winds and the storms shall hear them, and tremble, andworship thee.
Thy breath shall darken the morning, and wither the mounting sun;And the daysprings, frozen and fettered, shall know thee, and ceaseto run;The heart of the world shall feel thee, and die, and thy will bedone.
The spirit of man that would sound thee, and search out causes ofthings,Shall shrink and subside and praise thee: and wisdom, withplume-plucked wings,Shall cower at thy feet and confess thee, that none may fathom thysprings.
The fountains of song that await but the wind of an April to beTo burst the bonds of the winter, and speak with the sound of asea,The blast of thy mouth shall quench them: and song shall be only ofthee.
The days that are dead shall quicken, the seasons that were shallreturn;And the streets and the pastures of England, the woods that burgeonand yearn,Shall be whitened with ashes of women and children and men thatburn.
For the mother shall burn with the babe sprung forth of her womb infire,And bride with bridegroom, and brother with sister, and son withsire;And the noise of the flames shall be sweet in thine ears as thesound of a lyre.
Yea, so shall thy kingdom be stablished, and so shall the signs ofit be:And the world shall know, and the wind shall speak, and the sunshall see,That these are the works of thy servants, whose works bear witnessto thee.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- fettered a.
- Seeming as if fettered, as the feet pf certain animals which bend backward, and appear unfit for walking.
- await v. t.
- To watch for; to look out for. [OF. awaitier, agaitier; (L. ad) + waitier, gaitier to watch, F. guetter. See Wait.]
- burgeon v. i.
- To bud. See Bourgeon.
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- womb n.
- The belly; the abdomen. [OE. wombe, wambe, AS. wamb, womb; akin to D. wam belly, OS. & OHG. wamba, G. wamme, wampe, Icel. vömb, Sw. v&mb, Dan. vom, Goth. wamba.]
- bridegroom n.
- A man newly married, or just about to be married. [OE. bridegome, brudgume, AS. br (akin to OS. br, D. bruidegom, bruigom, OHG. pr, MHG. briutegome, G. bräutigam); AS. br bride + guma man, akin to Goth. guma, Ic]
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Armada I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Ballads (Third Series) Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne—Vol. III, Project Gutenberg ebook #18726; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Armada I, in Poems and Ballads (1866), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swinburne-poems-ballads/the-armada-i-4.html, id L25372.
Form and metre
The Armada I is 49 lines in 9 stanzas.
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 AA-A fireA · tireA · love · hireA
- 2 -A-AA plumed · foamA · strike · homeA · romeA
- 3 AA-A-A theA · seaA · peace · beA · and · theeA
- 4 A-A-A sunA · cease · runA · be · doneA
- 5 -A-A-A of · thingsA · with · wingsA · thy · springsA
- 6 A-A-A beA · a · seaA · of · theeA
- 7 -AAA-A shall · returnA · burgeonA · yearnA · that · burnA
- 8 -A-A-- in · fireA · with · sireA · the · lyre
- 9 -A-A-A of · beA · sun · seeA · witness · theeA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| But the Lord of darkness, the God whose love is a flaming fire, | 15 | ····/˘······/˘/ |
| The master whose mercy fulfils wide hell till its torturers tire, | 15 | ·/˘·/˘······/˘/ |
| He shall surely have heed of his servants who serve him for love, | 15 | ··/˘····/˘····· |
| not hire. | 3 | ·/˘ |
| They shall fetter the wing of the wind whose pinions are plumed | 14 | ··/˘······/˘·· |
| with foam: | 2 | ·· |
| For now shall thy horn be exalted, and now shall thy bolt strike | 15 | ······˘/˘······ |
| home; | 1 | · |
| Yea, now shall thy kingdom come, Lord God of the priests of Rome. | 14 | ····/˘········ |
| They shall cast thy curb on the waters, and bridle the waves of the | 16 | ·······/˘·/˘···· |
| sea: | 1 | · |
| They shall say to her, Peace, be still: and stillness and peace | 13 | ·········/˘·· |
| shall be: | 2 | ·· |
| And the winds and the storms shall hear them, and tremble, and | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| worship thee. | 3 | /˘· |
| Thy breath shall darken the morning, and wither the mounting sun; | 15 | ···/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| And the daysprings, frozen and fettered, shall know thee, and cease | 14 | ····/˘·/˘····· |
| to run; | 2 | ·· |
| The heart of the world shall feel thee, and die, and thy will be | 14 | ·············· |
| done. | 1 | · |
| The spirit of man that would sound thee, and search out causes of | 14 | ·/·········/˘· |
| things, | 1 | · |
| Shall shrink and subside and praise thee: and wisdom, with | 12 | ···˘/····/˘· |
| plume-plucked wings, | 3 | ··· |
| Shall cower at thy feet and confess thee, that none may fathom thy | 15 | ·/····˘/····/˘· |
| springs. | 1 | · |
| The fountains of song that await but the wind of an April to be | 17 | ·/˘···˘/·····/˘·· |
| To burst the bonds of the winter, and speak with the sound of a | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| sea, | 1 | · |
| The blast of thy mouth shall quench them: and song shall be only of | 15 | ············/˘· |
| thee. | 1 | · |
| The days that are dead shall quicken, the seasons that were shall | 14 | ······/˘·/˘··· |
| return; | 2 | ˘/ |
| And the streets and the pastures of England, the woods that burgeon | 15 | ·····/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| and yearn, | 2 | ·· |
| Shall be whitened with ashes of women and children and men that | 16 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘··· |
| burn. | 1 | · |
| For the mother shall burn with the babe sprung forth of her womb in | 15 | ··/˘··········· |
| fire, | 2 | /˘ |
| And bride with bridegroom, and brother with sister, and son with | 14 | ···/··/˘·/˘··· |
| sire; | 2 | /˘ |
| And the noise of the flames shall be sweet in thine ears as the | 14 | ·············· |
| sound of a lyre. | 4 | ···· |
| Yea, so shall thy kingdom be stablished, and so shall the signs of | 15 | ····/˘········· |
| it be: | 2 | ·· |
| And the world shall know, and the wind shall speak, and the sun | 13 | ············· |
| shall see, | 2 | ·· |
| That these are the works of thy servants, whose works bear witness | 14 | ·······/˘···/˘ |
| to thee. | 2 | ·· |
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