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I Hear an Army
POEM TEXT THEMES

1 I hear an army charging upon the land, THE PAIN OF HEARTBREAK

2 And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their "I Hear an Army" conjures a frightening nightmare:
knees: while sleeping, the poem’s speaker is besieged by a
3 Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand, great, ghostly army that emerges from the ocean on horse-
4 Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the drawn chariots. Soon enough, it becomes clear that these
charioteers. fearsome riders bearing down on the speaker are the product
of a troubled mind: they represent the overwhelming loneliness
5 They cry unto the night their battle-name: and despair that the speaker feels after being left by their
6 I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter. "love." In this way, the poem vividly illustrates the toll of
romantic loss and how heartbreak can cause restlessness,
7 They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
anxiety, and even outright terror.
8 Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.
The poem begins with a frightening scene: soldiers "charging"
9 They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair: forward (and thus closer to the speaker), filling the air with the
sound of "thunder" as their horses' hooves pound the land. The
10 They come out of the sea and run shouting by the
riders themselves are "arrogant" (implying they know full well
shore.
that they can defeat the speaker), cracking their threatening
11 My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
"whips" and wearing ominous "black armour."
12 My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
The speaker uses language and imagery that makes the soldiers
seem inhuman, even supernatural (and thus all the more
disconcerting). They rise out of the sea, "foam" swirling about
SUMMARY their horses' knees, their green—yes, green!—hair flowing in
the wind. They scream "their battle-name" (or battle cry),
The speaker says that they can hear the sounds of an army as it conveying their bloodlust. In short, they're terrifyingly bizarre,
charges forward onto the land. The pounding of the horses' like creatures sent from some mythological world sent to attack
hooves is like thunder as the animals emerge from the water, the speaker.
froth swirling up and around their legs. Proud, haughty soldiers, The poem links this horror with the speaker's mental state as it
who are wearing black armor, stand behind the horses on their becomes clear that what the reader is really witnessing is a
chariots. These chariot riders let go of the reins and crack their picture of psychological distress. The reader learns that that
whips through the air. this army is, in fact, the product of a terrible nightmare; the
The soldiers scream their battle cries into the darkness of the sleeping speaker "moan[s]" as the army invades their dreams,
night. The distant sound of the soldiers' echoing laughter clearly tormented by their presence.
disturbs the speaker's sleep. The soldiers slice open the In the end, the poem reveals that the speaker's despair, and
speaker's melancholy dreams with a flame that burns that's so thus this nightmare, stems from heartbreak: the speaker’s love
bright it hurts the speaker's eyes. The soldiers pound again and has abandoned them, and the army is the haunting
again on the speaker's heart like metal upon metal. manifestation of the speaker's loneliness, anxiety, and fear in
The victorious soldiers wave their long, green hair back and the wake of this loss. The soldiers are "clanging upon" the
forth. They emerge from the sea and scream as they run along speaker's heart as though pounding a hammer on an "anvil," an
the shoreline. The speaker addresses their own heart directly, image that evokes the speaker's deep emotional pain. The
asking, "Don't you know better than to get so sad?" The speaker soldiers' "whirling laughter," meanwhile, suggests that the
then calls out to their love again and again, asking, "Why have speaker feels humiliated and ashamed, as though their feelings
you abandoned me?" of love are worthy of mockery.
Neither their own "heart" nor their ex-lover responds when the
speaker cries out to them, leaving the speaker utterly alone in
the face of this ghoulish invasion. The army's overwhelming
power and ability to conquer the speaker's dreams thus implies

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that the speaker has been totally vanquished by their own galloping anapests to evoke the horses' movements:
romantic pain.
And the thun
thun- | der of hor
hor- | ses plun
plun- | ging, foam |
Where this theme appears in the poem: about
bout | their knees
knees:
• Lines 1-12
Finally, in its use of horses, the poem perhaps recalls the
apocalyptic scenes of the Bible's final book, Revelation, in which
the appearance of four horsemen heralds the end of the world.
LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS
LINES 3-4
LINES 1-2 Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
I hear an army charging upon the land, Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees: Lines 3 and 4 describe the soldiers themselves—and they make
The speaker hears an army, somewhere in the distance, making for an extremely ominous-looking group!
its thunderous way across "the land," presumably as part of an For one thing, these soldiers are "charioteers" (that is, they ride
invasion. Notice how the lack of detail here builds tension in the in carts pulled by horses). Chariots feature in many ancient,
poem: the reader has no idea whose army this is, nor for what epic battle legends. Their mention here makes this army seem
purpose they fight. All the reader knows is that something like something pulled from Greek or Roman myth.
dramatic, and likely threatening, is taking place. The soldiers themselves are also "arrogant," or overly proud
The intense auditory imagery in these lines creates a vivid sonic and cocky, implying that they're not worried about defeat. They
landscape for the reader. The speaker doesn't see the army (at wear scary "black armour" that perhaps makes them seem like a
least, not just yet) but hears them. This makes the army seem all force of evil and darkness, and they crack their "fluttering
the more frightening because the speaker (and the reader) whips" through the air." So confident are these soldiers in the
doesn't yet know what they look like, and thus might imagine all knowledge that they have full authority over their animals they
sorts of foes. don't even feel the need to hold their horses' reins. They
The meter here is mostly iambic
iambic, meaning it follows a da DUM "disdain" their reins, in fact, looking down on these tools with
pattern (albeit with an anapest, da da DUM
DUM, tossed in): disgust.
Note how convoluted the phrasing of these lines is. The main
I hear | an ar
ar- | my char
char- | ging upon
pon | the land
land, subject of the sentence doesn't arrive until the very last word:

Both iambs and anapests are "rising" feet, meaning they move Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
from unstressed to stressed beats. This creates a sense of Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the
propulsion, evoking the galloping of those horses and the charioteers
charioteers.
army's "charging" motion. The consonance and assonance in
"ar
army char
arging" add energy and emphasis to this opening line The reader thus gets to know about the charioteers before
as well. knowing that they are, well, charioteers. The numerous
Line 2 then reveals a bit more about this army: these aren't caesur
caesurae
ae throughout these lines create this grammatical delay,
modern soldiers with tanks and artillery. Instead, this army uses imbuing the poem with a sense of rising tension. The poem
horses for transport. The pounding of those horses' hooves heightens the soldiers' aura of frightening mystery, placing
creates a sound like "thunder" as their legs go "plunging" them as the sentence's main event (like the headline act at a
through the water (this detail suggests the army has just landed concert).
on a coastline). The horses' powerful movements whip "foam Once again, assonance
assonance, alliter
alliteration
ation, and consonance ("Arr
Arrogant
about their knees," violently disturbing the surface of the water in blaack arrmorr, behind," "disdain
aining the rein
eins,) add intensity to
(just as they disturb the speaker's sleep). the poem.
The poem uses various techniques to create its own poetic
LINES 5-8
"thunder," bringing this auditory imagery to life:
They cry unto the night their battle-name:
And
nd the thund
under of horses plun
unging, foam about their I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
knees: They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.
The meter here once again relies on march-like iambs and The next stanza reveals that these nightmarish soldiers are just

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that: the product of the speaker's nightmares. This whole stanza is filled with clashing consonance
consonance, assonance
assonance,
These soldiers shout their battle cry "unto the night." That they and direct repetition that combines into one great, horrible
make these cries "unto" (at), and not into, the night, suggests cacophon
cacophonyy:
that their mission is in some sense actively against the night.
This makes sense, given that these soldiers seem to be a They clea
cleave the gl
gloom
m of dream
eams, a bl
blind
ding fllam
me,
manifestation of the speaker's pain and anxiety, which refuse to Clanging, clanging up
pon the heart as upon
pon an anvil.
let the speaker rest. This army (which readers might start to
suspect is really a representation of the speaker's troubled The mixture of sharp, guttural, and plosive sounds creates a
thoughts) is effectively warring against the peaceful restfulness chaotic, intimidating mess that reflects the din of this imaginary
of sleep itself. army.
The speaker "moan[s]" upon hearing the far-off "whirling LINES 9-10
laughter" of the soldiers. This auditory imagery has an almost They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
psychedelic quality; it's as though the soldiers' derisive laughter They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
has swirled and echoed across impossible distances to unsettle
the sleeping speaker. That this laughter is "whirling," or The army's onslaught doesn't let up in the poem's final stanza.
spinning, further suggests that it surrounds the speaker. Instead, the speaker continues the "They" anaphor
anaphoraa to convey
how the army continues to bear down on the desperate
In lines 7 and 8, the army appears to outright attack the speaker.
speaker. They "cleave," or slice into/split "the gloom," or murky
darkness, "of dreams." It's as though the army has torn apart Line 9 is quite surreal, intensifying the poem's strange
the comforting darkness of sleep, replacing it with a "blinding atmosphere. These fighters "come out of the sea" and shake
flame" that burns away the speaker's peace. their "long, green hair" "in triumph." It's almost as though these
soldiers are a bizarre mash-up of different fighters: part Roman
Next, the strikes down upon the speaker's heart, "clanging" charioteers, part grotesque demons/mermen/wizards. They're
against it as though hammering down on an anvil. This simile drawn up from the depths of the speaker's unconscious mind to
evokes the sound of metal upon metal and conveys the disturb the surface of the speaker's thoughts, seemingly
pounding pain the speaker feels. It's no wonder the speaker represented here by the "shore" along which the soldiers "run,"
can't rest it also again implies how difficult this nightmare-army "shouting" in celebration of their victory.
has made it for the speaker to rest; it'd be impossible to sleep
with a "blinding flame" in your eyes and the sound of metal Given that this invading army consists of thoughts and feelings
"clanging" in your eyes. rather than actual soldiers, the battle was effectively won
before it began. That is, if these fighters intend to disturb and
The sounds of these lines mimick the chaotic, even upset the speaker, then mission accomplished!
cacophonous approach of this army. For one thing, note the
anaphor
anaphoraa of lines 5 and 6, both of which begin with "They" The alliter
alliteration
ation of "sh
shouting" and "sh
shore" here creates yet more
followed by a verb (both those verbs also begin with a sharp /c/ raucous poetic noise—perhaps even with a touch of ironironyy, as
sound, "ccry"/"ccleave," emphasizing their par
parallelism
allelism). This the /sh/ sound is so often associated with sleep.
repetition creates the sensation of a continual, relentless LINES 11-12
attack.
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
The epizeuxis of "Clanging, clanging" likewise implies that this My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
pounding on the speaker's heart, their emotional center, is non-
stop and painfully loud (the only thing louder than one "clang" is The poem's final two lines are notably different from the rest.
two!). Suddenly, as though jolted awake, the speaker asks two
searching, painful questions:
Note that the word "clanging" itself is also a poetic foot known
as a trochee (the opposite of an iamb
iamb, with a DUM da pattern). My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
Placing two trochees at the start of line 8 evokes the sheer My love, my love, my love, why have you left me
power of that "clanging" itself: alone?

Clang
Clanging, | clang
clanging [...] It's an important moment, revealing the source of the speaker's
distress: heartbreak. Their love has left them (perhaps they
These trochees interrupt the poem's flow (which, again, is broke up, or perhaps this "love" died), making the speaker's
generally iambic; the line before is perfect iambic pentameter, heart sink into "despair."
in fact). This metrical disruption evokes the speaker's disturbed
state of mind. This reframes everything that has come before, making sense

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of the link between the ghoulish army and the speaker's the speaker addresses "My heart" and "My love" directly:
troubled sleep. The soldiers apparently represent the speaker's
untameable worries, fears, and regrets related to lost love. My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
Both questions are also an example of the device apostrophe
apostrophe, My love, my love, my love, why have you left me
addressing something or someone that is clearly not able to alone?
respond. The speaker addresses their own heart—the center of
their emotional self—and basically asks, "Don't you know any This important moment implies that this nightmarish invasion is
better than to fall into this sadness-trap again!?" The /h/ really a product of the speaker's emotional distress. These
alliter
alliteration
ation of "h
heart" and "h have" suggests breathlessness and apostrophes emphasize the speaker's solitude: their heart
anxiety. cannot answer because it's part of the speaker, and the lover
won't respond because they've already "left" (they've either
The last line again begins with "My," creating another example
broken things off with the speaker or died), leaving the speaker
of emphatic anaphor
anaphoraa. The opening of this line is also an
in turmoil.
example of epizeuxis
epizeuxis:
Note that the speaker is also personifying their own heart here,
My love, my love, my love [...] treating it as an entity that can act independently of the
speaker's will. This emphasizes how out of control the speaker's
This repetition adds intensity to the poem's final line and it also emotions feel; they can't stop their "heart" from despairing.
helps to convey the depths of the speaker's pain as they call out That the speaker calls out to their own heart reflects their
to their beloved again and again and again with no response. sense of fragmentation and perhaps some self-loathing. The
The speaker is utterly "alone" with their agony. Ending on this speaker feels like they should know better than to fall into the
hopeless note, then, the poem thus shows the tragic power of trap of heartbreak.
heartbreak to overwhelm and "defeat" someone. The call-out to the speaker's love, meanwhile, happens not
once, but three times in a row. This conveys the speaker's
desperation.
SYMBOLS
Where Apostrophe appears in the poem:
THE ARMY • Lines 11-12: “My heart, have you no wisdom thus to
The army that the speaker hears represents the despair? / My love, my love, my love, why have you left
relentless barrage of negative emotions (pain, me alone?”
anxiety, regret, loneliness, etc.) stemming from the speaker's
heartbreak. ASSONANCE
This frightening army emerges from the sea, an image Assonance plays an important role in creating the raucous
suggesting that these fighters are born from the depths of the sounds of the army that the speaker "hear[s]." It often appears
speaker's subconscious. That they shout "by the shore" as their alongside consonance and alliter
alliteration
ation; together, all these sonic
horses kick up "foam" also suggests the way they rise to and devices make the poem sound more menacingly intense.
disrupt the surface of the speaker's thoughts. Take, for example, "ar
army chararging" in line 1, which starts the
The soldiers' sheer, terrifying strangeness, meanwhile, implies poem off on an energetic note that subtly conveys the force
the overwhelming, unbeatable nature of the speaker's pain; the with which this army plows across the land. In the very next
speaker's agony feels as frightening as an army of green-haired line, the assonance of "thuunder" and "plu unging" rings out like a
warriors screaming their battle cries into the night, "charging" peal of thunder traveling across the sky. Similarly, the flurry of
ever closer. short /ih/ sounds in "Disdaiaining the rei
eins" and "wiith flutteriing
whiips" in line 4 suggests the army's might, these vowels
Where this symbol appears in the poem: imposing themselves on the line as the soldiers invade the land.

• Lines 1-10 There's another interesting moment of assonance in line 7.

Here, the long /ee/ sounds of "clea
eave" and "drea
eams" add
rhythmic intensity to the line, again conveying the power of this
army to disturb the speaker's sleep.
POETIC DEVICES
Where Assonance appears in the poem:
APOSTROPHE
In the last two lines, the poem makes a surprising shift. Here, • Line 1: “army charging”

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Take lines 3-4, where the consonance of guttural /r/, sharp /k/
• Line 2: “thunder,” “plunging” and /t/, and heavy /d/, /b/, and /g/ sounds swirl together to
• Line 4: “Disdaining,” “reins,” “with fluttering whips” create the sensation of building doom:
• Line 7: “cleave,” “dreams”
• Line 10: “out,” “shouting” Arr
rroggantt, in black
ck arrmourr, behind d them sttand
d,
Disddain
ning the rein ns, with flutt
tterring whip
ps, the
CAESURA ch
chariotteerrs.
Caesur
Caesuraeae grant the poem a dramatic, rollicking rhythm that fits
right in with its image of a ghoulish army of green-haired The sounds of the poem get even harsher as this army attacks
charioteers. the speaker. Readers can hear the screech of metal upon metal
here:
Caesurae are most important in the poem's opening stanza,
where they add to the ominous tone:
They cl
cleave the gl
gloom of dreams, a bl
blind
ding fllame,
Cl
Clanging, cl
clanging up
pon the heart as up
pon an anvil.
And the thunder of horses plunging,, foam about their
knees:
The swirl of biting, thudding, and, indeed, "clanging" sounds
Arrogant,, in black armour,, behind them stand,
makes the imagery of these lines, in which this nightmare army
Disdaining the reins,, with fluttering whips,, the
is battering away at the speaker's heart, all the more vivid.
charioteers.
Where Cacophon
Cacophonyy appears in the poem:
That first comma after "plunging" halts the reader and subtly
creates a kind of heady downward motion, evoking the legs of • Lines 1-4
the horse as they pound the surf. • Lines 7-8
The next lines are then jammed with pauses; readers move • Lines 9-10
forward haltingly, and, in this way, caesurae help to ramp up the
poem's dramatic tension. All those commas delay the arrival of IMAGERY
the "charioteers" in the sentence and in the poem, leaving time "I Hear an Army" uses surreal, frightening imagery that appeals
for dread to build as readers wonder who, exactly, will appear to readers' eyes and ears. This vivid imagery immerses the
at the stanza's end. reader in the speaker's terrifying nightmare.
The commas also suggest physical might, pulling the poem's Auditory imagery, in particular, dominates the poem, bringing
generally iambic meter this way and perhaps evoking the the sounds the speaker can "hear" to life. For example, there's
speaker's tossing and turning as this army invades their the sound of the army "charging upon the land" on galloping
dreams. horses, whose hooves smack the ground like "thunder." The
soldiers scream out their "battle-name," making the speaker
Where Caesur
Caesuraa appears in the poem: "moan in sleep," surrounded by their "whirling laughter."
• Line 2: “plunging, foam” Some of the most striking auditory imagery comes in line 8, in
• Line 3: “Arrogant, in,” “armour, behind” which the speaker describes the army "Clanging, clanging upon
• Line 4: “reins, with,” “whips, the” the heart as upon an anvil." This simile turns the speaker's heart
• Line 7: “dreams, a” into an anvil, against which the army pounds again and again.
• Line 8: “Clanging, clanging” Readers can hear that ear-splitting clang of metal on metal, like
• Line 9: “long, green” the sound of clashing swords. Having defeated the speaker, the
• Line 11: “heart, have” soldiers shout their "triumph." It's no wonder the speaker can't
• Line 12: “love, my love, my love, why” sleep!
The poem's visual imagery is just as unsettling. These soldiers
CACOPHONY emerge from the sea like monsters or gods from myth, "shaking
Joyce packs the poem with noisy sonic devices to recreate the in triumph their long, green hair." They stand tall and proud,
thunderous, frightening atmosphere of the speaker's clad "in black armor," on chariots behind their horses, as though
nightmare. Percussive, explosive, and growling consonants they're ancient Roman warriors. And they pierce the "gloom" of
weave throughout nearly every line, evoking the pounding of the speaker's sleep with "blinding flame," suggesting that the
the horses' hooves, the soldiers' shrieking battle cries, and the speaker's pain is fire-hot and inescapable.
general chaos of war. This cacophon
cacophonyy makes sense, given that
this army is essentially waging war against the speaker's sleep.

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speaker as painfully alone, as though these questions are asked
Where Imagery appears in the poem:
into an echoing void. The epizeuxis of "My love" comes across
• Lines 1-10 as desperate and frantic, demonstrating heartbreak's hold over
the speaker's world.
REPETITION
Repetition in "I Hear an Army" helps to present the army's Where Repetition appears in the poem:
onslaught as unrelenting and unforgiving. Of course, this is an • Line 5: “They cry”
army formed in the speaker's head, the soldiers representing • Line 7: “They cleave”
the speaker's emotional pain. Using repetition thus informs the • Line 8: “Clanging, clanging,” “upon,” “upon”
reader about the speaker's state of mind: cyclical, restless, and • Line 9: “They come”
fraught. • Line 10: “They come”
This repetition comes in various forms. Lines 5 and 7, for • Line 11: “My heart,” “have you”
example, use anaphor
anaphoraa: • Line 12: “My love, my love, my love,” “have you”

The
Theyy cry unto the night their battle-name:
I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling VOCABULARY
laughter.
The
Theyy cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame, Charging (Line 1) - Rushing forward in combat.
Plunging (Line 2) - Dropping quickly.
The army won't let the speaker sleep, making constant noise
Disdaining (Line 4) - Rejecting; finding no need for.
and attacking from the inside of the speaker's mind. The
repetition mirrors this unrelenting warfare. Reins (Line 4) - Long straps used to control the movement of a
horse.
(Note, too, the subtle juxtaposition here: while "They" cry and
cleave, the speaker can only "moan." The par
parallelism
allelism of these Fluttering (Line 4) - A trembling motion.
phrases emphasizes the fact that these soldiers are a product Charioteers (Line 4) - Soldiers riding in horse-drawn carts.
of the speaker's mind and are causing the speaker great Unto (Line 5) - Towards, at.
emotional distress.)
Battle-name (Line 5) - The name of the battle, or perhaps the
The poem continues this effect in lines 9 and 10: individual monikers used by the soldiers when in combat.

The
Theyy come shaking in triumph their long, green hair: Afar (Line 6) - From far away.
The
Theyy come out of the sea and run shouting by the Whirling (Line 6) - Swirling or moving in circles.
shore. Cleave (Line 7) - Split.
Gloom (Line 7) - Dark, murky atmosphere.
Those soldiers just keep coming and coming, and there's
nothing the speaker can do to stop them! Clanging (Line 8) - Striking with a loud metallic noise.
Repetition also comes in the form of epizeuxis
epizeuxis: Anvil (Line 8) - A metalworking tool against which another
metal object—the one being shaped—is struck.
Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil. Triumph (Line 9) - Victory.
Have you no wisdom thus to despair? (Lines 11-11, Line 11) -
This repetition again emphasizes the soldiers' relentlessness,
The speaker is basically saying, "Don't you know better than to
and it also makes that "clanging" seem even louder (after all,
be sad like this?"
two "clang[s]" are noisier than one).
Anaphora, parallelism, and epizeuxis combine in the poem's
final two lines: FORM, METER, & RHYME
My heart
heart, ha
havve yyou
ou no wisdom thus to despair? FORM
My lo
lovve, m
myy lo
lovve, m
myy lo
lovve, why ha
havve yyou
ou left me "I Hear an Army" consists of three quatr
quatrains
ains (four-line stanzas),
alone? each of which uses a mostly iambic (da DUM
DUM) rhythm and
follows an ABAC rhrhyme
yme scheme
scheme. This steady stanza structure
The speaker suddenly cries out, but there is no one there to perhaps evokes the rigid organization of an army into separate
answer. The repetitive phrasing of these questions portrays the units (though this particular army seems frighteningly chaotic

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too!). The form is relatively predictable, reflecting the army's next rhyme will fall.
seemingly inevitable victory. That is, the poem marches At the same time, however, it's more common in poetry for the
forward just as surely as the army itself. second and third lines of a stanza to rhyme (AB BCB B). "I Hear an
METER Army" resists this expected pattern, denying readers a sense of
sonic resolution at the end of the stanza. This, in turn, evokes
"I Hear an Army" generally follows an iambic rhythm. An iamb is the speaker's lingering anguish.
a poetic foot consisting of two syllables that follow an
unstressed-stressed
stressed pattern (da DUM
DUM).
Iambs tend to convey forward motion, and, in this poem, they SPEAKER
subtly evoke the advance of the army "charging upon the land."
However, from the first line, readers can hear that this iambic "I Hear an Army" uses a first-person speaker, though the poem
rhythm isn't perfect: gives very little away about their specific identity. This speaker
is the individual who "hear[s] an army charging upon the land,"
I hear | an ar
ar- | my char
char- | ging upon
pon | the land
land, and they describe this ghoulish invasion in vivid, frightening
terms.
The third foot here is an anapest (da da DUM
DUM), a variation that As the poem goes on, it reveals more about the speaker: the
the speaker turns to often in the poem. Anapests, like iambs, speaker's mention of troubled sleep in line 6 imply that this
feature a rising rhythm (meaning they move from unstressed to whole scenario is really a nightmare. Lines 11 and 12 then
stressed syllables). Their frequent inclusion thus doesn't break reveal that the speaker is heartbroken and lonely. This person is
with the poem's powerful momentum, and these anapests also someone who has been abandoned by a lover (whether this
evoke the galloping of horses. Take line 2, which begins with lover left the speaker or died remains unclear), and the strange,
two galloping anapests before falling back into iambs: green-haired charioteers that torment the speaker are a
manifestation of their anguish.
And the thun
thun- | der of hor
hor- | ses plun
plun- | ging, foam |
about
bout | their knees
knees:
SETTING
The poem also uses trochees
trochees, which are the opposite of iambs
"I Hear an Army" conjures a surreal, terrifying setting of a
(DUM
DUM da). These create more impactful breaks in the poem's
nightmare. The speaker dreams of an army filled with black-
rhythm, as in line 8:
clad, green-hair soldiers emerging from the sea like strange
mythical creatures. The army is also strangely ahistorical,
Clang
Clanging, | clang
clanging [...]
driving horse-drawn chariots that bring to mind the warriors of
ancient Rome. Their fierce horses' legs are "plunging" into the
The line opens with two trochees in a row. These front-loaded water, which froths about their knees. The air is filled with the
poetic feet land heavily and violently, evoking the harsh sound sound of the thundering of those horses' hooves, the
of metal striking metal. These feet are downright noisy, just like "fluttering" of the soldiers' "whips," swirls of cackling laughter,
the poem's imagery at this moment. and screams of victory.
Line 9 then almost loses the metrical scheme completely: These images don't entirely make sense (for example, are the
soldiers still on their chariots, or have they leapt off to run
They come | shak
shaking | in tri
tri- | umph their long
long, | green along the shore?). That's the point, though: the setting has the
hair
hair: twisted logic of a dream-world rather than reality. This bizarre,
chaotic setting captures the speaker's frazzled, obsessive,
The line's unpredictable rhythm conveys the army's chaotic despairing state of mind.
energy in victory.

RHYME SCHEME
CONTEXT
"I Hear an Army" has a simple rh
rhyme
yme scheme running
throughout. In each stanza, the first and third lines rhyme, LITERARY CONTEXT
while the second and fourth do not:
James Joyce was one of the most influential writers of the 20th
ABAC century. Though best known for his novels Ulysses and
On the one hand, this steady pattern adds to the poem's feeling Finnegans Wake and for his short story collection Dubliners,
of relentless momentum. That is, regular rhyme gives the poem Joyce also published three poetry collections.
forward movement as the reader begins to anticipate when the

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 Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com
"I Hear an Army" is the closing poem in the first of these
collections, Chamber Music, which was published in England in MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES
1907 (before any of Joyce's major works). The poems in
Chamber Music generally feature strict stanza forms and focus EXTERNAL RESOURCES
on romantic love and the beauty of nature. "I Hear an Army" • Chamber Music — Check out the 1907 poetry collection in
was a late addition to the collection (along with "All
All Da
Dayy I Hear which "I Hear an Army" appears.
the Noise of WWaters
aters"), and it sticks out: while many of the other (https:/
(https://www
/www.gutenberg.org/files/2817/2817-h/
.gutenberg.org/files/2817/2817-h/
poems conjure pleasant, pastoral worlds, "I Hear an Army" 2817-h.htm)
creates an apocalyptic vision drawn from a nightmare. • Jo
Joyyce
ce's
's WWords
ords on Jo
Joyyce
ce's
's W
Work
ork — Read excerpts from
James would go on to become a major figure in modernism, a Joyce's correspondence that relay his feelings about the
movement that encouraged breaking with old-fashioned forms poems in Chamber Music.
and experimentation with artistic techniques. Yet there's little (https:/
(https:///publicdomainre
publicdomainreview
view.org/collection/james-jo
.org/collection/james-joyyce-s-
in this poem (or, indeed, in the collection in which it appears) to chamber-music-1918-american-edition)
suggest Joyce's later role as a literary innovator. Indeed, the • The PPoem
oem Set to Music — Listen to a musical setting of the
poem seems more indebted to W.B. Yeats, who called "I Hear poem by American composer Samuel Barber.
an Army" a "technical and emotional masterpiece." By 1932, (https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/watch?v=FT
outube.com/watch?v=FTonj_r0KIY)
onj_r0KIY)
Joyce had stopped writing poetry completely.
• More PPoems
oems b
byy Jo
Joyyce — A selection of Joyce's other
HISTORICAL CONTEXT poetry, hosted by the Poetry Foundation.
James Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882. He composed most of (https:/
(https://www
/www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/james-jo
.poetryfoundation.org/poets/james-joyyce )
the poems in Chamber Music between 1901 and 1906, while • Jo
Joyyce
ce's
's Place in Irish P
Poetry
oetry — A brief survey of where
still in his 20s, and he later called the work a "young man's Joyce stands in Irish literature, specifically as a poet rather
book." than a novelist. (https:/
(https:///archiv
archive.n
e.nytimes.com/
ytimes.com/
The early 1900s was an era of considerable uncertainty. In www
www.n .nytimes.com/books/00/01/09/specials/jo
ytimes.com/books/00/01/09/specials/joyyce-
addition to being a time of rapid technological change and collected.html?source=post_page---------------------------)
industrialization, the movement for Irish independence from
Britain was already gaining speed. Internally, Ireland was
ideologically divided between primarily Catholic nationalists HOW T
TO
O CITE
and pro-Britain, primarily Protestant unionists.
In the nightmarish atmosphere of this poem, some critics MLA
perceive a premonition of armed conflict between the two Howard, James. "I Hear an Army." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 5 Apr
sides. That said, Joyce viewed the book as a representation of 2022. Web. 12 Apr 2022.
himself as a "strange lonely boy, walking about by myself at
night and thinking that some day a girl would love me." It seems CHICAGO MANUAL
unlikely, then, that the poem has much of its specific historical Howard, James. "I Hear an Army." LitCharts LLC, April 5, 2022.
context in mind. Retrieved April 12, 2022. https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/
james-joyce/i-hear-an-army.

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