Analysis of Repression of War Experience
Now light the candles; one; two; there’s a moth;
What silly beggars they are to blunder in
And scorch their wings with glory, liquid flame—
No, no, not that,—it’s bad to think of war,
When thoughts you’ve gagged all day come back to scare you;
And it’s been proved that soldiers don’t go mad
Unless they lose control of ugly thoughts
That drive them out to jabber among the trees.
Now light your pipe; look, what a steady hand.
Draw a deep breath; stop thinking; count fifteen,
And you’re as right as rain...
Why won’t it rain?...
I wish there’d be a thunder-storm to-night,
With bucketsful of water to sluice the dark,
And make the roses hang their dripping heads.
Books; what a jolly company they are,
Standing so quiet and patient on their shelves,
Dressed in dim brown, and black, and white, and green,
And every kind of colour. Which will you read?
Come on; O do read something; they’re so wise.
I tell you all the wisdom of the world
Is waiting for you on those shelves; and yet
You sit and gnaw your nails, and let your pipe out,
And listen to the silence: on the ceiling
There’s one big, dizzy moth that bumps and flutters;
And in the breathless air outside the house
The garden waits for something that delays.
There must be crowds of ghosts among the trees,—
Not people killed in battle,—they’re in France,—
But horrible shapes in shrouds—old men who died
Slow, natural deaths,—old men with ugly souls,
Who wore their bodies out with nasty sins.
. . . .
You’re quiet and peaceful, summering safe at home;
You’d never think there was a bloody war on!...
O yes, you would ... why, you can hear the guns.
Hark! Thud, thud, thud,—quite soft ... they never cease—
Those whispering guns—O Christ, I want to go out
And screech at them to stop—I’m going crazy;
I’m going stark, staring mad because of the guns.
Scheme | XXXXXXXA XBCCXXXXXBXXXXDXXXXAXXXX XXEXDXE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1101011101 11010111100 0111110101 1111111111 11111111111 0111110111 0111011101 1111110101 1111110101 1011110101 011111 1111 1111010111 111101101 0101011101 1101010011 10110010111 1011010101 01001111111 1111110111 1111010101 1101111101 11011101111 01010101010 11110111010 0001011101 0101110101 1111110101 1101010101 11001011111 11001111101 1111011101 1 1100101111 11011101011 1111111101 1111111101 110011111111 01111111010 110110101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,867 |
Words | 332 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 24, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 458 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 110 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 1:39 min read
- 130 Views
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"Repression of War Experience" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34923/repression-of-war-experience>.
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