The Armada I
And a day and a night pass over;And the heart of their chief swells high;For England, the warrior, the rover,Whose banners on all winds fly,Soul-stricken, he saith, by the shadow of death, holds off him, anddraws not nigh.
And the wind and the dawn togetherMake in from the gleaming east:And fain of the wild glad weatherAs famine is fain of feast,And fain of the fight, forth sweeps in its might the host of theLord's high priest.
And lightly before the breezeThe ships of his foes take wing:Are they scattered, the lords of the seas?Are they broken, the foes of the king?And ever now higher as a mounting fire the hopes of the Spaniardspring.
And a windless night comes down:And a breezeless morning, brightWith promise of praise to crownThe close of the crowning fight,Leaps up as the foe's heart leaps, and glows with lustrous raptureof light.
And stinted of gear for battleThe ships of the sea's folk lie,Unwarlike, herded as cattle,Six miles from the foeman's eyeThat fastens as flame on the sight of them tame and offenceless,and ranged as to die.
Surely the souls in them quail,They are stricken and withered at heart,When in on them, sail by sail,Fierce marvels of monstrous art,Tower darkening on tower till the sea-winds cower crowds down as tohurl them apart.
And the windless weather is kindly,And comforts the host in these;And their hearts are uplift in them blindly,And blindly they boast at easeThat the next day's fight shall exalt them, and smite withdestruction the lords of the seas.
Words in this poem
- rover n.
- One who practices robbery on the seas; a pirate. [D. roover a robber. See Rove, v. i.]
- stricken p. p.
- Struck; smitten; wounded; as, the stricken deer.
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
- spaniard n.
- A native or inhabitant of Spain.
- windless a.
- Having no wind; calm.
- breezeless a.
- Motionless; destitute of breezes.
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- uplift v. t.
- To lift or raise aloft; to raise; to elevate; as, to uplift the arm; to uplift a rock.
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- 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,]
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-5.html, id L07079.
Form and metre
The Armada I is 42 lines in 7 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%).
See 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 ABAB-B overA · highB · roverA · flyB · and · nighB
- 2 ABAB-B togetherA · eastB · weatherA · feastB · the · priestB
- 3 ABAB-B breezeA · wingB · seasA · kingB · spaniard · springB
- 4 ABAB-B downA · brightB · crownA · fightB · rapture · lightB
- 5 ABAB-B battleA · lieB · cattleA · eyeB · offenceless · dieB
- 6 ABAB-B quailA · heartB · sailA · artB · to · apartB
- 7 ABAB-B kindlyA · theseB · blindlyA · easeB · with · seasB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And a day and a night pass over; | 8 | ········ |
| And the heart of their chief swells high; | 8 | ········ |
| For England, the warrior, the rover, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Whose banners on all winds fly, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Soul-stricken, he saith, by the shadow of death, holds off him, and | 15 | ·/˘····/······· |
| draws not nigh. | 3 | ··· |
| And the wind and the dawn together | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Make in from the gleaming east: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And fain of the wild glad weather | 8 | ······/˘ |
| As famine is fain of feast, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And fain of the fight, forth sweeps in its might the host of the | 14 | ·············· |
| Lord's high priest. | 3 | ··· |
| And lightly before the breeze | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The ships of his foes take wing: | 7 | ······· |
| Are they scattered, the lords of the seas? | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Are they broken, the foes of the king? | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And ever now higher as a mounting fire the hopes of the Spaniard | 15 | ·/·/··/˘/····/˘ |
| spring. | 1 | · |
| And a windless night comes down: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And a breezeless morning, bright | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| With promise of praise to crown | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The close of the crowning fight, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Leaps up as the foe's heart leaps, and glows with lustrous rapture | 14 | ··········/˘/˘ |
| of light. | 2 | ·· |
| And stinted of gear for battle | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| The ships of the sea's folk lie, | 7 | ······· |
| Unwarlike, herded as cattle, | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Six miles from the foeman's eye | 7 | ······· |
| That fastens as flame on the sight of them tame and offenceless, | 16 | ·/˘············· |
| and ranged as to die. | 5 | ····· |
| Surely the souls in them quail, | 7 | /˘····· |
| They are stricken and withered at heart, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
| When in on them, sail by sail, | 7 | ······· |
| Fierce marvels of monstrous art, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Tower darkening on tower till the sea-winds cower crowds down as to | 14 | //˘·/····/···· |
| hurl them apart. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| And the windless weather is kindly, | 9 | ··/˘/˘·/˘ |
| And comforts the host in these; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And their hearts are uplift in them blindly, | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| And blindly they boast at ease | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| That the next day's fight shall exalt them, and smite with | 12 | ······˘/···· |
| destruction the lords of the seas. | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
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