The Standard-Bearer II
Into the thick of the Edgehill fightSir Edmund rode with a shout; and the ringOf grim-faced, hard-hitting Parliament menSwallowed him up,--it was one against ten!He fought for the standard with all his might,Never again did he come to sight--Victor, hid by the raven's wing!After the battle had passed we foundOnly one thing,--The hand of Sir Edmund gripped aroundThe banner-staff of his King.
Words in this poem
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- parliament n.
- A parleying; a discussion; a conference. [OE. parlement, F. parlement, fr. parler to speak; cf. LL. parlamentum, parliamentum. See Parley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Standard-Bearer II is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, The Standard-Bearer II, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/the-standard-bearer-ii.html, id L22797.
Form and metre
The Standard-Bearer II is 11 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABCCAABDBDB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABCCAABDBDB fightA · ringB · menC · tenC · mightA · sightA · wingB · foundD · thingB · aroundD · kingB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Into the thick of the Edgehill fight | 10 | ·········· |
| Sir Edmund rode with a shout; and the ring | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Of grim-faced, hard-hitting Parliament men | 10 | ····/˘/˘˘· |
| Swallowed him up,--it was one against ten! | 10 | /˘········ |
| He fought for the standard with all his might, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Never again did he come to sight-- | 9 | /˘˘/····· |
| Victor, hid by the raven's wing! | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| After the battle had passed we found | 10 | ···/˘··˘·· |
| Only one thing,-- | 4 | /˘·· |
| The hand of Sir Edmund gripped around | 10 | ····/˘·˘·· |
| The banner-staff of his King. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
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.