Analysis of From A Full Heart
Alan Alexander Milne 1882 – 1956
In days of peace my fellow-men
Rightly regarded me as more like
A Bishop than a Major-Gen.,
And nothing since has made me warlike;
But when this agelong struggle ends
And I have seen the Allies dish up
The goose of Hindenburg—oh, friends!
I shall out-bish the mildest Bishop.
When the War is over and the Kaiser's out of print,
I'm going to buy some tortoises and watch the beggars sprint;
When the War is over and the sword at last we sheathe,
I'm going to keep a jelly-fish and listen to it breathe.
I never really longed for gore,
And any taste for red corpuscles
That lingered with me left before
The German troops had entered Brussels.
In early days the Colonel's 'Shun!'
Froze me; and, as the War grew older,
The noise of someone else's gun
Left me considerably colder.
When the War is over and the battle has been won,
I'm going to buy a barnacle and take it for a run;
When the War is over and the German Fleet we sink,
I'm going to keep a silk-worm's egg and listen to it think.
The Captains and the Kings depart—
It may be so, but not lieutenants;
Dawn after weary dawn I start
The never-ending round of penance;
One rock amid the welter stands
On which my gaze is fixed intently—
An after-life in quiet hands
Lived very lazily and gently.
When the War is over and we've done the Belgians proud,
I'm going to keep a chrysalis and read to it aloud;
When the War is over and we've finished up the show,
I'm going to plant a lemon-pip and listen to it grow.
Oh, I'm tired of the noise and the turmoil of battle,
And I'm even upset by the lowing of cattle,
And the clang of' the bluebells is death to my liver,
And the roar of the dandelion gives me a shiver,
And a glacier, in movement, is much too exciting,
And I'm nervous, when standing on one, of alighting—
Give me Peace; that is all, that is all that I seek…
Say, starting on Saturday week.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EEFF GCGXHIHI HHJJ KXKXLMLM NNOO PPIIXBQQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111101 100101111 01010101 01011111 1111101 011101011 011111 111101010 1011100010111 110111100010101 1011100011111 110110101010111 11010111 0101111 11011101 010111010 01010101 110101110 0111101 110100010 1011100010111 110110100011101 1011100010111 110110111010111 01000101 111111010 11010111 010101110 11010101 111111010 11010101 110100010 1011100110101 110110100011101 1011100110101 110110101010111 1110101001110 0110011010110 001101111110 0011010011010 0010010111010 01101101111 111111111111 11011001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,828 |
Words | 358 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 8, 4, 8, 4, 8 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 204 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 09, 2023
- 1:51 min read
- 73 Views
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"From A Full Heart" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/242/from-a-full-heart>.
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