Robert Browning

Marching Along

KENTISH Sir Byng stood for his King,

crop-headed Parliament

Roundheads—Puritan Parliamentarians who cut their hair short (unlike the long-haired Cavaliers). "Swing" means hang. This is a Royalist execution fantasy.

Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing:
And, pressing a troop unable to stoop
And see the rogues flourish and honest folk droop,
Marched them along, fifty-score strong,

fifty-score strong

One thousand soldiers (50 × 20). Browning keeps the exact count through every chorus—military precision turned into drinking-song rhythm.

Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song.
II.

Pym and such carles

John Pym led Parliament against Charles I. "Carles" = churls, peasants. The Royalists saw themselves as gentlemen fighting low-born rebels.

God for King Charles! Pym and such carles
To the Devil that prompts 'em their treasonous parles!
Cavaliers, up! Lips from the cup,
Hands from the pasty, nor bite take nor sup
Till you're (Chorus) marching along, fifty-score strong,
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song.
III.
Hampden to hell, and his obsequies' knell
Serve Rudyard, and Fiennes, and young Harry as well
England, good cheer! Rupert is near!
Kentish and loyalists, keep we not here
(Cho). Marching along, fifty-score strong,
(Cho.) Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song?
IV.
Then, God for King Charles! Pym and his snarls
To the Devil that pricks on such pestilent carles!
Hold by the right, you double your might;
So onward to Nottingham, fresh for the fight,

onward to Nottingham

Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham in August 1642—the official start of the English Civil War. This is the march to that moment.

(Cho). March we along, fifty-score strong,
   Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song!
KENTISH Sir Byng stood for his King,

crop-headed Parliament

Roundheads—Puritan Parliamentarians who cut their hair short (unlike the long-haired Cavaliers). "Swing" means hang. This is a Royalist execution fantasy.

Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing:
And, pressing a troop unable to stoop
And see the rogues flourish and honest folk droop,
Marched them along, fifty-score strong,

fifty-score strong

One thousand soldiers (50 × 20). Browning keeps the exact count through every chorus—military precision turned into drinking-song rhythm.

Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song.

Pym and such carles

John Pym led Parliament against Charles I. "Carles" = churls, peasants. The Royalists saw themselves as gentlemen fighting low-born rebels.

God for King Charles! Pym and such carles
To the Devil that prompts 'em their treasonous parles!
Cavaliers, up! Lips from the cup,
Hands from the pasty, nor bite take nor sup
Till you're (Chorus) marching along, fifty-score strong,
Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song.
Hampden to hell, and his obsequies' knell
Serve Rudyard, and Fiennes, and young Harry as well
England, good cheer! Rupert is near!
Kentish and loyalists, keep we not here
(Cho). Marching along, fifty-score strong,
(Cho.) Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song?
Then, God for King Charles! Pym and his snarls
To the Devil that pricks on such pestilent carles!
Hold by the right, you double your might;
So onward to Nottingham, fresh for the fight,

onward to Nottingham

Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham in August 1642—the official start of the English Civil War. This is the march to that moment.

(Cho). March we along, fifty-score strong,
   Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song!
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Browning's Royalist Ventriloquism

CONTEXT Browning wrote this in the 1840s, two centuries after the English Civil War. He wasn't a Royalist—he was a Victorian liberal dramatizing the Cavalier voice with uncomfortable accuracy.

The poem is a drinking song that becomes a war song. Notice the structure: "Lips from the cup, / Hands from the pasty"—they're literally at a feast when the call to arms comes. The rhythm mimics a military march, but also a tavern singalong. Browning captures how war propaganda works: repetition (that chorus hammers home), named enemies (Pym, Hampden, Rudyard), and the conversion of violence into music.

The named Parliamentarians are real: John Pym (Parliament's leader), John Hampden (tax resister who became a martyr), William Fiennes (Viscount Saye and Sele), Henry Marten ("young Harry," a radical). Prince Rupert was Charles's nephew, the Royalist cavalry commander. Browning did his homework—these aren't generic enemies but specific 1642 targets.

The poem's trick is making you feel the Cavalier certainty. "Hold by the right, you double your might"—they believe God is on their side. The repetition of "great-hearted gentlemen" isn't ironic in the moment; it's how they saw themselves. Browning lets them sing their own song, knowing his readers know how it ends: the King loses his head in 1649.

The Marching Rhythm

Browning built this poem like a military drum. Every stanza ends with the same two lines, but watch how the chorus evolves: "marching along" becomes "March we along" in the final stanza—the shift from description to command, from past tense to present imperative.

The rhyme scheme is relentless: AABBCC, couplets that lock together like soldiers in formation. "Swing/King," "stoop/droop," "cup/sup"—the rhymes are so tight they feel inevitable, which is exactly the mood of men marching to war convinced of victory.

"Fifty-score strong" appears six times. That's not lazy writing—it's obsessive counting, the way soldiers count themselves before battle. The number never changes because the fantasy is perfect: no desertions, no casualties, just one thousand "great-hearted gentlemen" marching in unison. The repetition is the point.