Analysis of The Alarm
In Memory of one of the Writer's Family who was a Volunteer during the War
with Napoleon
In a ferny byway
Near the great South-Wessex Highway,
A homestead raised its breakfast-smoke aloft;
The dew-damps still lay steamless, for the sun had made no sky-way,
And twilight cloaked the croft.
'Twas hard to realize on
This snug side the mute horizon
That beyond it hostile armaments might steer,
Save from seeing in the porchway a fair woman weep with eyes on
A harnessed Volunteer.
In haste he'd flown there
To his comely wife alone there,
While marching south hard by, to still her fears,
For she soon would be a mother, and few messengers were known there
In these campaigning years.
'Twas time to be Good-bying,
Since the assembly-hour was nighing
In royal George's town at six that morn;
And betwixt its wharves and this retreat were ten good miles of hieing
Ere ring of bugle-horn.
"I've laid in food, Dear,
And broached the spiced and brewed, Dear;
And if our July hope should antedate,
Let the char-wench mount and gallop by the halterpath and wood, Dear,
And fetch assistance straight.
"As for Buonaparte, forget him;
He's not like to land! But let him,
Those strike with aim who strike for wives and sons!
And the war-boats built to float him; 'twere but wanted to upset him
A slat from Nelson's guns!
"But, to assure thee,
And of creeping fears to cure thee,
If he should be rumored anchoring in the Road,
Drive with the nurse to Kingsbere; and let nothing thence allure thee
Till we've him safe-bestowed.
"Now, to turn to marching matters:--
I've my knapsack, firelock, spatters,
Crossbelts, priming-horn, stock, bay'net, blackball, clay,
Pouch, magazine, flints, flint-box that at every quick-step clatters;
...My heart, Dear; that must stay!"
--With breathings broken
Farewell was kissed unspoken,
And they parted there as morning stroked the panes;
And the Volunteer went on, and turned, and twirled his glove for
token,
And took the coastward lanes.
When above He'th Hills he found him,
He saw, on gazing round him,
The Barrow-Beacon burning--burning low,
As if, perhaps, uplighted ever since he'd homeward bound him;
And it meant: Expect the Foe!
Leaving the byway,
And following swift the highway,
Car and chariot met he, faring fast inland;
"He's anchored, Soldier!" shouted some:
"God save thee, marching thy way,
Th'lt front him on the strand!"
He slowed; he stopped; he paltered
Awhile with self, and faltered,
"Why courting misadventure shoreward roam?
To Molly, surely! Seek the woods with her till times have altered;
Charity favors home.
"Else, my denying
He would come she'll read as lying--
Think the Barrow-Beacon must have met my eyes--
That my words were not unwareness, but deceit of her, while trying
My life to jeopardize.
"At home is stocked provision,
And to-night, without suspicion,
We might bear it with us to a covert near;
Such sin, to save a childing wife, would earn it Christ's remission,
Though none forgive it here!"
While thus he, thinking,
A little bird, quick drinking
Among the crowfoot tufts the river bore,
Was tangled in their stringy arms, and fluttered, well-nigh sinking,
Near him, upon the moor.
He stepped in, reached, and seized it,
And, preening, had released it
But that a thought of Holy Writ occurred,
And Signs Divine ere battle, till it seemed him Heaven had pleased it
As guide to send the bird.
"O Lord, direct me!...
Doth Duty now expect me
To march a-coast, or guard my weak ones near?
Give this bird a flight according, that I thence know to elect me
The southward or the rear."
He loosed his clasp; when, rising,
The bird--as if surmising--
Bore due to southward, crossing by the Froom,
And Durnover Great-
Scheme | AB CCDCD EBFEF GGHGH IIJIJ FFDFK LLMLM NNONO PPCHC BBQABQ LLRLR CCSXCS DTUTU IIVIV BBFBX IIAIX WWTWT NNFNF IILK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0100111010100110011001 10100 0011 1011101 011110101 01111110111111 01101 111101 11101010 10111010011 111000101101111 01001 01111 11101011 1101111101 1111101001100011 010101 111111 100101011 0101011111 001110101011111 111101 11011 0101011 01101111 10111010101011 010101 111011 11111111 1111111101 0011111111101011 011101 11011 01101111 111110100001 11011101101011 111101 11111010 111110 110111111 11011111100111 111111 1110 111010 01101110101 0001110101111 10 01011 1011111111 1111011 0101010101 1101110111011 0110101 1001 0100101 10100111011 11010101 1111011 111101 111111 0111010 1100010101 110101011011110 100101 11010 11111110 10101011111 11101110110110 11110 1111010 01101010 11111110101 11110111111010 110111 11110 0101110 010110101 110011010101110 110101 1101011 0101011 1101110101 0101110111110111 111101 11011 1101011 1101111111 1110101011111011 010101 1111110 01111 1111010101 011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,265 |
Words | 633 |
Sentences | 26 |
Stanzas | 19 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4 |
Lines Amount | 93 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 150 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:13 min read
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"The Alarm" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36479/the-alarm>.
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