Analysis of Two Fusiliers

Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)



And have we done with War at last?
Well, we’ve been lucky devils both,
And there’s no need of pledge or oath
To bind our lovely friendship fast,
By firmer stuff
Close bound enough.

By wire and wood and stake we’re bound,
By Fricourt and by Festubert,
By whipping rain, by the sun’s glare,
By all the misery and loud sound,
By a Spring day,
By Picard clay.

Show me the two so closely bound
As we, by the red bond of blood,
By friendship, blossoming from mud,
By Death: we faced him, and we found
Beauty in Death,
In dead men breath.


Scheme ABBACC DAXDEE DFFDGG
Poetic Form
Metre 01111111 11110101 01111111 111010101 1101 1101 110010101 11011 11011011 110100011 1011 1011 11011101 11101111 11010011 11111011 1001 0111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 544
Words 105
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 135
Words per stanza (avg) 34
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 22, 2023

31 sec read
125

Robert Graves

Robert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, scholar/translator/writer of antiquity specializing in Classical Greece and Rome, novelist and soldier in World War One. more…

All Robert Graves poems | Robert Graves Books

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