Analysis of To a Silent Girl

Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant 1864 (Bridgwater, Somerset) – 1902 (Pretoria)



When the sklll'd fashioner of female faces
  Designed your mask, he wrought with cunning fist,
  And made a mouth expressly to be kiss'd -
Not for shrill utterance nor pert grimaces.

The curved, ripe lips-above the rounded chin -
  He dyed the hue of summer's reddest rose,
  Then placed a smile upon them to disclose
A glimpse of white and even pearls within.

Those lips are silent, sweetheart! - but your eyes
  Are eloquent, and they love's lesson teach
  Better than other woman's aptest speech -
In their soft light the tend'rest language lies.

In womankind - the world has long confess'd -
A silent mouth and speaking eyes are best.


Scheme XAAX BCCB DEED FF
Poetic Form
Metre 10111110 0111111101 0101010111 11110011100 0111010101 1101110101 1101011101 0111010101 111101111 1100011101 101101011 0111011101 01011101 0101010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 633
Words 113
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 2
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 123
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 27, 2023

36 sec read
120

Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant

Harry "Breaker" Harbord Morant (born Edwin Henry Murrant, 9 December 1864 – 27 February 1902) was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, bush poet and military officer, who was convicted and executed for murder during the Second Anglo-Boer War. While serving with the Bushveldt Carbineers during the Second Anglo-Boer War, Lieutenant Morant was arrested and court-martialed for war crimes—one of the first such prosecutions in British military history. According to military prosecutors, Morant retaliated for the death in combat of his commanding officer with a series of revenge killings against both Boer POWs and many civilian residents of the Northern Transvaal. more…

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