I Saw Old General at Bay
I saw old General at bay,(Old as he was, his gray eyes yet shone out in battle like stars,)His small force was now completely hemm’d in, in his works,He call’d for volunteers to run the enemy’s lines, a desperate emergency,I saw a hundred and more step forth from the ranks, but two or threewere selected,I saw them receive their orders aside, they listen’d with care, theadjutant was very grave,I saw them depart with cheerfulness, freely risking their lives.
Words in this poem
- desperate a.
- Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare. See Despair, and cf. Desperado.]
- adjutant n.
- A helper; an assistant. [L. adjutans, p. pr. of adjutare to help. See Aid.]
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I Saw Old General at Bay is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, I Saw Old General at Bay, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/i-saw-old-general-at-bay.html, id L03959.
Form and metre
I Saw Old General at Bay is 9 lines in a single stanza. 80% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.7 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ----A-A-- bay · stars · works · emergency · threeA · selected · theA · grave · lives
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I saw old General at bay, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| (Old as he was, his gray eyes yet shone out in battle like stars,) | 15 | ···········/˘·· |
| His small force was now completely hemm’d in, in his works, | 13 | ·····˘/˘····· |
| He call’d for volunteers to run the enemy’s lines, a desperate emergency, | 20 | ····˘/···/˘˘··/˘˘/˘˘ |
| I saw a hundred and more step forth from the ranks, but two or three | 16 | ···/˘··········· |
| were selected, | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| I saw them receive their orders aside, they listen’d with care, the | 16 | ···˘/·/˘˘/·/˘··· |
| adjutant was very grave, | 7 | /˘˘·/˘· |
| I saw them depart with cheerfulness, freely risking their lives. | 15 | ···˘/·/˘˘/˘/˘·· |
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.