Analysis of cowardly army boy

Adrienne Rhodes 2008 (North Carolina)



comrades, leave me here a little while
till the sun sets upon the stretch of land
that i cling to in these fleeting moments
as i die to foreign hand

i cannot say i died in valor
i had dragged myself away
a cowardly army boy
in his final resting place

comrades, leave me here a little while
i need not see the dove white sheets
i will lay in blood and dirt
to keep the linen clean and neat

tell my mom i can’t be back for supper
and that i’m sorry the foods gone cold
the feeling of hungers no longer,
death’s white horse has approached

comrades, leave me here a little while
the raven hath come to collect its dues
mourning in the morning air
murder masked as casualties listed on the news


Scheme Abxb cxxx Axxx cxcx Adxd
Poetic Form Quatrain  (40%)
Etheree  (20%)
Metre 11110101 1011010111 1111011010 1111101 110111010 111101 0100101 0110101 11110101 11110111 1110101 11010101 1111111110 011100111 01011110 111101 11110101 0101110111 1000101 1011100010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 700
Words 142
Sentences 1
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 109
Words per stanza (avg) 27

About this poem

A soldier who, in his last moments, feels like nothing more than a burden and that his efforts will go unnoticed.

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Written on April 19, 2024

Submitted by quixiu on April 19, 2024

42 sec read
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Adrienne Rhodes

i write when i’m bored or when i’m sad more…

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