Analysis of The Football Match



I.
   O wild kaleidoscopic panorama of jaculatory arms and legs.
   The twisting, twining, turning, tussling, throwing, thrusting,
      throttling, tugging, thumping, the tightening thews.
   The tearing of tangled trousers, the jut of giant calves protuberant.
   The wriggleness, the wormlike, snaky movement and life of it;
   The insertion of strong men in the mud, the wallowing, the stamping with thick shoes;
   The rowdyism, and élan, the slugging and scraping, the cowboy Homeric ferocity.
   (Ah, well kicked, red legs! Hit her up, you muddy little hero, you!)
   The bleeding noses, the shins, the knuckles abraded:
   That's the way to make men! Go it, you border ruffians, I like ye.
II.

Only two sorts of men are any good, I wouldn't give a cotton hat for no other --
  The Poet and the Plug Ugly. They are picturesque. O, but ain't they?
  These college chaps, these bouncing fighters from M'Gill and Toronto,
  Are all right. I must have a fighter, a bully, somewhat of a desperado;
  Of course, I prefer them raw, uneducated, unspoiled by book rot;
  I reckon these young fellows, these howling Kickapoos of the puddle, these boys,
  Have been uneducated to an undemocratic and feudal-aristocratic extent;
  Lord! how they can kick, though! Another man slugged there!
III.

Unnumbered festoons of pretty Canadian girls, I salute you;
  Howl away, you non-playing encouragers of the kickers!
  Rah, Rah, Rah, Rah, Rah, Rah, M'Gill!
  Rah, Rah, Rah, Sis, Boom, Toronto! Lusty-throated give it!
  O, wild, tumultuous, multitudinous shindy. Well, this is the boss;
  This is worth coming twenty miles to see. Personally, I haven't had so much fun
      since I was vaccinated.
  I wonder if the Doctor spectates it. Here is something beyond his plesiosauri.
  Pure physical glow and exultation this of abundantest muscle:
  I wish John Sullivan were here.
IV.

O, the kicking, stamping, punching, the gore and the glory of battle!
  Kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick.  Will you kick!
  You kickers, scoop up the mud, steam plough the field,
  Fall all over yourselves, squirm out! Look at that pile-driver of a full-back there!
  Run, leg it, hang on to the ball; say, you big chump, don't you kill that little chap
  When you are about it.
  Well, I'd like to know what a touch down is, then?  Draw?
  Where's your draw?
  Yer lie!


Scheme ABXBCCXCDCXA EXCCCXCFA DXXCXXCEGXX GXCFXCHHA
Poetic Form
Metre 1 11101011101 010101011010 100101001001 010110100111011 01011100111 00101110010100010111 0101010010010100100 1111110111010101 01010010101 101111111101111 1 1011111101110101011110 01000110111001111 1101110101110010 1111110100101110010 1110111010001111 11011101101101011 110100110010010001001 111111010111 1 11110010011011 101111011010 11111111 11111010101011 111001111101 111101011110001101111 1111000 11010101111100111 110010111110 11110001 1 10101010010010110 111111111 11011011101 1110011111111010111 1111110111111111101 111011 111111011111 111 11
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 2,321
Words 385
Sentences 40
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 12, 9, 11, 9
Lines Amount 41
Letters per line (avg) 42
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 434
Words per stanza (avg) 96
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 17, 2023

1:58 min read
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