The Full Text of “I Hear an Army”
1I hear an army charging upon the land,
2And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
3Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
4Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.
5They cry unto the night their battle-name:
6I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
7They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
8Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.
9They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
10They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
11My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
12My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
The Full Text of “I Hear an Army”
1I hear an army charging upon the land,
2And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
3Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
4Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.
5They cry unto the night their battle-name:
6I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
7They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
8Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.
9They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
10They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
11My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
12My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
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“I Hear an Army” Introduction
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"I Hear an Army" is a poem by Irish author James Joyce. While mainly known for his novels (including Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), Joyce also dabbled in poetry. This poem appears in his first collection, Chamber Music (1907), and it describes an invasion by a frightening army of ghoulish, green-haired soldiers in horse-drawn chariots. Soon enough, it becomes clear that the speaker is dreaming, and that this army represents a nightmarish onslaught of negative and painful emotions brought on by heartbreak.
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“I Hear an Army” Summary
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The speaker says that they can hear the sounds of an army as it charges forward onto the land. The pounding of the horses' hooves is like thunder as the animals emerge from the water, froth swirling up and around their legs. Proud, haughty soldiers, who are wearing black armor, stand behind the horses on their chariots. These chariot riders let go of the reins and crack their whips through the air.
The soldiers scream their battle cries into the darkness of the night. The distant sound of the soldiers' echoing laughter disturbs the speaker's sleep. The soldiers slice open the speaker's melancholy dreams with a flame that burns that's so bright it hurts the speaker's eyes. The soldiers pound again and again on the speaker's heart like metal upon metal.
The victorious soldiers wave their long, green hair back and forth. They emerge from the sea and scream as they run along the shoreline. The speaker addresses their own heart directly, asking, "Don't you know better than to get so sad?" The speaker then calls out to their love again and again, asking, "Why have you abandoned me?"
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“I Hear an Army” Themes
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The Pain of Heartbreak
"I Hear an Army" conjures a frightening nightmare: while sleeping, the poem’s speaker is besieged by a great, ghostly army that emerges from the ocean on horse-drawn chariots. Soon enough, it becomes clear that these fearsome riders bearing down on the speaker are the product of a troubled mind: they represent the overwhelming loneliness and despair that the speaker feels after being left by their "love." In this way, the poem vividly illustrates the toll of romantic loss and how heartbreak can cause restlessness, anxiety, and even outright terror.
The poem begins with a frightening scene: soldiers "charging" forward (and thus closer to the speaker), filling the air with the sound of "thunder" as their horses' hooves pound the land. The riders themselves are "arrogant" (implying they know full well that they can defeat the speaker), cracking their threatening "whips" and wearing ominous "black armour."
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 their horses' knees, their green—yes, green!—hair flowing in the wind. They scream "their battle-name" (or battle cry), conveying their bloodlust. In short, they're terrifyingly bizarre, like creatures sent from some mythological world sent to attack the speaker.
The poem links this horror with the speaker's mental state as it becomes clear that what the reader is really witnessing is a picture of psychological distress. The reader learns that that this army is, in fact, the product of a terrible nightmare; the sleeping speaker "moan[s]" as the army invades their dreams, clearly tormented by their presence.
In the end, the poem reveals that the speaker's despair, and thus this nightmare, stems from heartbreak: the speaker’s love has abandoned them, and the army is the haunting manifestation of the speaker's loneliness, anxiety, and fear in the wake of this loss. The soldiers are "clanging upon" the speaker's heart as though pounding a hammer on an "anvil," an image that evokes the speaker's deep emotional pain. The soldiers' "whirling laughter," meanwhile, suggests that the speaker feels humiliated and ashamed, as though their feelings 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 that the speaker has been totally vanquished by their own romantic pain.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I Hear an Army”
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Lines 1-2
I hear an army charging upon the land,
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:The speaker hears an army, somewhere in the distance, making its thunderous way across "the land," presumably as part of an invasion. Notice how the lack of detail here builds tension in the poem: the reader has no idea whose army this is, nor for what purpose they fight. All the reader knows is that something dramatic, and likely threatening, is taking place.
The intense auditory imagery in these lines creates a vivid sonic landscape for the reader. The speaker doesn't see the army (at least, not just yet) but hears them. This makes the army seem all the more frightening because the speaker (and the reader) doesn't yet know what they look like, and thus might imagine all sorts of foes.
The meter here is mostly iambic, meaning it follows a da DUM pattern (albeit with an anapest, da da DUM, tossed in):
I hear | an ar- | my char- | ging upon | the land,
Both iambs and anapests are "rising" feet, meaning they move from unstressed to stressed beats. This creates a sense of propulsion, evoking the galloping of those horses and the army's "charging" motion. The consonance and assonance in "army charging" add energy and emphasis to this opening line as well.
Line 2 then reveals a bit more about this army: these aren't modern soldiers with tanks and artillery. Instead, this army uses horses for transport. The pounding of those horses' hooves creates a sound like "thunder" as their legs go "plunging" through the water (this detail suggests the army has just landed on a coastline). The horses' powerful movements whip "foam about their knees," violently disturbing the surface of the water (just as they disturb the speaker's sleep).
The poem uses various techniques to create its own poetic "thunder," bringing this auditory imagery to life:
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
The meter here once again relies on march-like iambs and galloping anapests to evoke the horses' movements:
And the thun- | der of hor- | ses plun- | ging, foam | about | their knees:
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.
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Lines 3-4
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers. -
Lines 5-8
They cry unto the night their battle-name:
I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil. -
Lines 9-10
They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore. -
Lines 11-12
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
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“I Hear an Army” Symbols
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The Army
The army that the speaker hears represents the relentless barrage of negative emotions (pain, anxiety, regret, loneliness, etc.) stemming from the speaker's heartbreak.
This frightening army emerges from the sea, an image suggesting that these fighters are born from the depths of the speaker's subconscious. That they shout "by the shore" as their horses kick up "foam" also suggests the way they rise to and disrupt the surface of the speaker's thoughts.
The soldiers' sheer, terrifying strangeness, meanwhile, implies the overwhelming, unbeatable nature of the speaker's pain; the speaker's agony feels as frightening as an army of green-haired warriors screaming their battle cries into the night, "charging" ever closer.
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“I Hear an Army” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Apostrophe
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Assonance
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Caesura
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Cacophony
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Imagery
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Repetition
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"I Hear an Army" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Charging
- Plunging
- Disdaining
- Reins
- Fluttering
- Charioteers
- Unto
- Battle-name
- Afar
- Whirling
- Cleave
- Gloom
- Clanging
- Anvil
- Triumph
- Have you no wisdom thus to despair?
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Rushing forward in combat.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I Hear an Army”
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Form
"I Hear an Army" consists of three quatrains (four-line stanzas), each of which uses a mostly iambic (da DUM) rhythm and follows an ABAC rhyme scheme. This steady stanza structure perhaps evokes the rigid organization of an army into separate units (though this particular army seems frighteningly chaotic too!). The form is relatively predictable, reflecting the army's seemingly inevitable victory. That is, the poem marches forward just as surely as the army itself.
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Meter
"I Hear an Army" generally follows an iambic rhythm. An iamb is a poetic foot consisting of two syllables that follow an unstressed-stressed pattern (da DUM).
Iambs tend to convey forward motion, and, in this poem, they subtly evoke the advance of the army "charging upon the land." However, from the first line, readers can hear that this iambic rhythm isn't perfect:
I hear | an ar- | my char- | ging upon | the land,
The third foot here is an anapest (da da DUM), a variation that the speaker turns to often in the poem. Anapests, like iambs, feature a rising rhythm (meaning they move from unstressed to stressed syllables). Their frequent inclusion thus doesn't break with the poem's powerful momentum, and these anapests also evoke the galloping of horses. Take line 2, which begins with two galloping anapests before falling back into iambs:
And the thun- | der of hor- | ses plun- | ging, foam | about | their knees:
The poem also uses trochees, which are the opposite of iambs (DUM da). These create more impactful breaks in the poem's rhythm, as in line 8:
Clanging, | clanging [...]
The line opens with two trochees in a row. These front-loaded poetic feet land heavily and violently, evoking the harsh sound of metal striking metal. These feet are downright noisy, just like the poem's imagery at this moment.
Line 9 then almost loses the metrical scheme completely:
They come | shaking | in tri- | umph their long, | green hair:
The line's unpredictable rhythm conveys the army's chaotic energy in victory.
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Rhyme Scheme
"I Hear an Army" has a simple rhyme scheme running throughout. In each stanza, the first and third lines rhyme, while the second and fourth do not:
ABAC
On the one hand, this steady pattern adds to the poem's feeling of relentless momentum. That is, regular rhyme gives the poem forward movement as the reader begins to anticipate when the next rhyme will fall.
At the same time, however, it's more common in poetry for the second and third lines of a stanza to rhyme (ABCB). "I Hear an Army" resists this expected pattern, denying readers a sense of sonic resolution at the end of the stanza. This, in turn, evokes the speaker's lingering anguish.
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“I Hear an Army” Speaker
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"I Hear an Army" uses a first-person speaker, though the poem gives very little away about their specific identity. This speaker is the individual who "hear[s] an army charging upon the land," and they describe this ghoulish invasion in vivid, frightening terms.
As the poem goes on, it reveals more about the speaker: the speaker's mention of troubled sleep in line 6 imply that this whole scenario is really a nightmare. Lines 11 and 12 then reveal that the speaker is heartbroken and lonely. This person is someone who has been abandoned by a lover (whether this lover left the speaker or died remains unclear), and the strange, green-haired charioteers that torment the speaker are a manifestation of their anguish.
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“I Hear an Army” Setting
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"I Hear an Army" conjures a surreal, terrifying setting of a nightmare. The speaker dreams of an army filled with black-clad, green-hair soldiers emerging from the sea like strange mythical creatures. The army is also strangely ahistorical, driving horse-drawn chariots that bring to mind the warriors of ancient Rome. Their fierce horses' legs are "plunging" into the water, which froths about their knees. The air is filled with the sound of the thundering of those horses' hooves, the "fluttering" of the soldiers' "whips," swirls of cackling laughter, and screams of victory.
These images don't entirely make sense (for example, are the soldiers still on their chariots, or have they leapt off to run along the shore?). That's the point, though: the setting has the twisted logic of a dream-world rather than reality. This bizarre, chaotic setting captures the speaker's frazzled, obsessive, despairing state of mind.
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Literary and Historical Context of “I Hear an Army”
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Literary Context
James Joyce was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Though best known for his novels Ulysses and Finnegans Wake and for his short story collection Dubliners, Joyce also published three poetry collections.
"I Hear an Army" is the closing poem in the first of these collections, Chamber Music, which was published in England in 1907 (before any of Joyce's major works). The poems in Chamber Music generally feature strict stanza forms and focus on romantic love and the beauty of nature. "I Hear an Army" was a late addition to the collection (along with "All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters"), and it sticks out: while many of the other poems conjure pleasant, pastoral worlds, "I Hear an Army" creates an apocalyptic vision drawn from a nightmare.
James would go on to become a major figure in modernism, a movement that encouraged breaking with old-fashioned forms and experimentation with artistic techniques. Yet there's little in this poem (or, indeed, in the collection in which it appears) to suggest Joyce's later role as a literary innovator. Indeed, the poem seems more indebted to W.B. Yeats, who called "I Hear an Army" a "technical and emotional masterpiece." By 1932, Joyce had stopped writing poetry completely.
Historical Context
James Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882. He composed most of the poems in Chamber Music between 1901 and 1906, while still in his 20s, and he later called the work a "young man's book."
The early 1900s was an era of considerable uncertainty. In addition to being a time of rapid technological change and industrialization, the movement for Irish independence from Britain was already gaining speed. Internally, Ireland was ideologically divided between primarily Catholic nationalists and pro-Britain, primarily Protestant unionists.
In the nightmarish atmosphere of this poem, some critics perceive a premonition of armed conflict between the two sides. That said, Joyce viewed the book as a representation of himself as a "strange lonely boy, walking about by myself at night and thinking that some day a girl would love me." It seems unlikely, then, that the poem has much of its specific historical context in mind.
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More “I Hear an Army” Resources
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External Resources
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Chamber Music — Check out the 1907 poetry collection in which "I Hear an Army" appears.
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Joyce's Words on Joyce's Work — Read excerpts from Joyce's correspondence that relay his feelings about the poems in Chamber Music.
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The Poem Set to Music — Listen to a musical setting of the poem by American composer Samuel Barber.
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More Poems by Joyce — A selection of Joyce's other poetry, hosted by the Poetry Foundation.
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Joyce's Place in Irish Poetry — A brief survey of where Joyce stands in Irish literature, specifically as a poet rather than a novelist.
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