Analysis of Warsaw September 1939
I was in Warsaw when the first bomb fell;
I was in Warsaw when the Terror came -
Havoc and horror, famine, fear and flame,
Blasting from loveliness a living hell.
Barring the station towered a sentinel;
Trainward I battled, blind escape my aim.
ENGLAND! I cried. He kindled at the name:
With lion-leap he haled me. . . . All was well.
ENGLAND! they cried for aid, and cried in vain.
Vain was their valour, emptily they cried.
Bleeding, they saw their city crucified. . . .
O splendid soldier, by the last lone train,
To-day would you flame forth to fray me place?
Or; would you curse and spit into my face?
Scheme | ABBAXBBA CDDCEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110110111 110110101 1001010101 10110101 10010100100 111010111 1011110101 1101111111 1011110101 1111111 101111010 1101010111 1111111111 1111010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 624 |
Words | 125 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 230 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
About this poem
Robert W. Service wrote this about the destruction of Warsaw at the beginning of WWII, and how the Poles appealed for help but received none. Today, replace Warsaw with Kyiv and the poem has new significance.
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Written on 1939
Submitted by dogojim3 on May 03, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 10 Views
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"Warsaw September 1939" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/125977/warsaw-september-1939>.
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