Hasheen
"Of British arms, another victory!"Triumphant words, through all the land's length sped.Triumphant words, but, being interpreted,Words of ill sound, woful as words can be.Another carnage by the drear Red Sea--Another efflux of a sea more red!Another bruising of the hapless headOf a wrong'd people yearning to be free.Another blot on her great name, who standsConfounded, left intolerably aloneWith the dilating spectre of her ownDark sin, uprisen from yonder spectral sands:Penitent more than to herself is known;England, appall'd by her own crimson hands.
Words in this poem
- woful a.
- Full of woe; sorrowful; distressed with grief or calamity; afflicted; wretched; unhappy; sad.
- carnage n.
- Flesh of slain animals or men. [F. carnage, LL. carnaticum tribute of animals, flesh of animals, fr. L. caro, carnis, flesh. See Carnal.]
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- spectre n.
- Something preternaturally visible; an apparition; a ghost; a phantom. [F. spectre, fr. L. spectrum an appearance, image, specter, fr. specere to look. See Spy, and cf. Spectrum.]
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hasheen is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, Hasheen, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/hasheen.html, id L11288.
Form and metre
Hasheen is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 -AABBAABCDDCDC victory · spedA · interpretedA · beB · seaB · redA · headA · freeB · standsC · aloneD · ownD · sandsC · knownD · handsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "Of British arms, another victory!" | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Triumphant words, through all the land's length sped. | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Triumphant words, but, being interpreted, | 11 | ˘/˘··/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Words of ill sound, woful as words can be. | 10 | ·········· |
| Another carnage by the drear Red Sea-- | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| Another efflux of a sea more red! | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| Another bruising of the hapless head | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of a wrong'd people yearning to be free. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Another blot on her great name, who stands | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Confounded, left intolerably alone | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘˘˘/ |
| With the dilating spectre of her own | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Dark sin, uprisen from yonder spectral sands: | 11 | ······/˘/˘· |
| Penitent more than to herself is known; | 10 | /˘˘···˘/·· |
| England, appall'd by her own crimson hands. | 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.