Restored Allegiance
Dark is thy trespass, deep be thy remorse,O England! Fittingly thine own feet bleed,Submissive to the purblind guides that leadThy weary steps along this rugged course.Yet ... when I glance abroad, and track the sourceMore selfish far, of other nations' deed,And mark their tortuous craft, their jealous greed,Their serpent-wisdom or mere soulless force,Homeward returns my vagrant fealty,Crying, "O England, shouldst thou one day fall,Shatter'd in ruins by some Titan foe,Justice were thenceforth weaker throughout allThe world, and Truth less passionately free,And God the poorer for thine overthrow."
Words in this poem
- craft n.
- Strength; might; secret power. [AS. cr strength, skill, art, cunning; akin to OS., G., Sw., & Dan. kraft strength, D. kracht, Icel. kraptr; perh. originally, a drawing together, stretching, fr]
- greed n.
- An eager desire or longing; greediness; as, a greed of gain. [Akin to Goth. grdus hunger, Icel. graedhr. sq. root34. See Greedy.]
- soulless a.
- Being without a soul, or without greatness or nobleness of mind; mean; spiritless.
- homeward a.
- Being in the direction of home; as, the homeward way.
- thenceforth adv.
- From that time; thereafter.
- passionately adv.
- In a passionate manner; with strong feeling; ardently.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Restored Allegiance 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, Restored Allegiance, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/restored-allegiance.html, id L11292.
Form and metre
Restored Allegiance is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBAABBA-CDC-D remorseA · bleedB · leadB · courseA · sourceA · deedB · greedB · forceA · fealty · fallC · foeD · allC · free · overthrowD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dark is thy trespass, deep be thy remorse, | 10 | ···/····˘/ |
| O England! Fittingly thine own feet bleed, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Submissive to the purblind guides that lead | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Thy weary steps along this rugged course. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Yet ... when I glance abroad, and track the source | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| More selfish far, of other nations' deed, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And mark their tortuous craft, their jealous greed, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Their serpent-wisdom or mere soulless force, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Homeward returns my vagrant fealty, | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘/˘˘ |
| Crying, "O England, shouldst thou one day fall, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Shatter'd in ruins by some Titan foe, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Justice were thenceforth weaker throughout all | 10 | /˘··//˘··· |
| The world, and Truth less passionately free, | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘· |
| And God the poorer for thine overthrow." | 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.