Analysis of Dead Men's Love

Rupert Brooke 1887 (Rugby) – 1915 (Aegean Sea)




There was a damned successful Poet;
 There was a Woman like the Sun.
And they were dead.  They did not know it.
 They did not know their time was done.
    They did not know his hymns
    Were silence; and her limbs,
    That had served Love so well,
    Dust, and a filthy smell.

And so one day, as ever of old,
 Hands out, they hurried, knee to knee;
On fire to cling and kiss and hold
 And, in the other's eyes, to see
    Each his own tiny face,
    And in that long embrace
    Feel lip and breast grow warm
    To breast and lip and arm.

So knee to knee they sped again,
 And laugh to laugh they ran, I'm told,
Across the streets of Hell . . .
                                  And then
 They suddenly felt the wind blow cold,
    And knew, so closely pressed,
    Chill air on lip and breast,
    And, with a sick surprise,
    The emptiness of eyes.


Scheme XAXABBCC DEDEFFXX GDCGDHHII
Poetic Form
Metre 110101010 11010101 010111111 11111111 111111 010001 111111 100101 011111011 11110111 110110101 00010111 111101 001101 110111 110101 11111101 01111111 010111 01 110010111 011101 111101 010101 010011
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 841
Words 155
Sentences 11
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 9
Lines Amount 25
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 193
Words per stanza (avg) 52
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 06, 2023

47 sec read
57

Rupert Brooke

Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially "The Soldier". more…

All Rupert Brooke poems | Rupert Brooke Books

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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
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