Analysis of Gillespie.
Sir Henry Newbolt 1862 (Bilston, Staffordshire) – 1938 (Kensington, London)
Riding at dawn, riding alone,
Gillespie left the town behind;
Before he turned by the Westward road
A horseman crossed him, staggering blind.
'The Devil's abroad in false Vellore,
The Devil that stabs by night,' he said,
'Women and children, rank and file,
Dying and dead, dying and dead.'
Without a word, without a groan,
Sudden and swift Gillespie turned,
The blood roared in his ears like fire,
Like fire the road beneath him burned.
He thundered back to Arcot gate,
He thundered up through Arcot town,
Before he thought a second thought
In the barrack yard he lighted down.
'Trumpeter, sound for the Light Dragoons,
Sound to saddle and spur,' he said;
'He that is ready may ride with me,
And he that can may ride ahead.'
Fierce and fain, fierce and fain,
Behind him went the troopers grim,
They rode as ride the Light Dragoons
But never a man could ride with him.
Their rowels ripped their horses' sides,
Their hearts were red with a deeper goad,
But ever alone before them all
Gillespie rode, Gillespie rode.
Alone he came to false Vellore,
The walls were lined, the gates were barred;
Alone he walked where the bullets bit,
And called above to the Sergeant's Guard.
'Sergeant, Sergeant, over the gate,
Where are your officers all?' he said;
Heavily came the Sergeant's voice,
'There are two living and forty dead.'
'A rope, a rope,' Gillespie cried :
They bound their belts to serve his need.
There was not a rebel behind the wall
But laid his barrel and drew his bead.
There was not a rebel among them all
But pulled his trigger and cursed his aim,
For lightly swung and rightly swung
Over the gate Gillespie came.
He dressed the line, he led the charge,
They swept the wall like a stream in spate,
And roaring over the roar they heard
The galloper guns that burst the gate.
Fierce and fain, fierce and fain,
The troopers rode the reeking flight:
The very stones remember still
The end of them that stab by night.
They've kept the tale a hundred years,
They'll keep the tale a hundred more:
Riding at dawn, riding alone,
Gillespie came to false Vellore.
Scheme | Abcb dexe afdf ghxh iexe Jkik iclc dmxm geie xnln loxo xgxg Jpxp idAd |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 10111001 01010101 011110101 010111001 01001011 010111111 10010101 10011001 01010101 10010101 011011110 110010111 1101111 1101111 01110101 001011101 10011011 11100111 111101111 01111101 101101 01110101 1111011 110011111 1111101 110110101 110010111 01010101 0111111 01010101 011110101 01011011 10101001 111100111 1001011 111100101 01010101 11111111 1110100101 111100111 1110100111 111100111 11010101 10010101 11011101 110110101 010100111 0111101 101101 01010101 01010101 01111111 11010101 11010101 10111001 0101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,013 |
Words | 377 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 115 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 1:52 min read
- 106 Views
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"Gillespie." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35129/gillespie.>.
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