Agincourt/poem/Michael Drayton
The title under which Drayton wrote
this was The Ballad of Agincourt. This
poem and to the Virginian Voyage are, according to Hardin Craig, two of the
best ballads in English. Both of them
are classified as odes. They are
Horatian rather than Pindaric odes, though they lack the detached meditation
and streak of scepticism associated with the former. It doesnot strictly measure up a standard
ballad which is a narrative song, dramatic and impersonal, characterised by the
absence of sentimentality and a tragic conception of life. It does not follow the ballad stanza which is
a quatrain in alternate iambic trimester and tetrameter, with the second and
fourth lines rhyming. The devices of
refrain and incremental repetition are also absent. It tells the story with action and
dialogue. It exhibits the personal
emotion of the poet, that is, his patriotism.
However, it can be considered a variant form invented by Drayton to suit
his need. It is, as John Buxton remarks, metrical tour
de force with the verse beating a tattoo for King Harry and his men with
supreme gallantry. Drayton kept on
revising and polishing this poem from 1606 to 1619, till he could make clear,
to use the words of Harold Child, the ringing tramp of the marching army. With its stanzas of eight short, crisp lines,
rhyming aaabcccb, it is the model for a war poem.
village in France, where the battle took place) fought in 1415, in which
the English King, Henry V won a victory over the French. Drayton in the poem, pays a glowing tribute
to Henry V whose heroism according to him, sweeps away everything before
him.
