Analysis of Twelve Months After

Siegfried Sassoon 1886 (Matfield) – 1967 (Heytesbury)



Hullo! here’s my platoon, the lot I had last year.
‘The war’ll be over soon.’
‘What ’opes?’
‘No bloody fear!’
Then, ‘Number Seven, ’shun! All present and correct.’
They’re standing in the sun, impassive and erect.
Young Gibson with his grin; and Morgan, tired and white;
Jordan, who’s out to win a D.C.M. some night;
And Hughes that’s keen on wiring; and Davies (’79),
Who always must be firing at the Boche front line.

. . . .
‘Old soldiers never die; they simply fide a-why!’
That’s what they used to sing along the roads last spring;
That’s what they used to say before the push began;
That’s where they are to-day, knocked over to a man.


Scheme AXBACCDDBX XXEE
Poetic Form Tetractys  (33%)
Metre 11101011111 011101 11 1101 110101110001 110001010001 1101110101001 1011110111 0111110010 11111010111 1 110101110101 111111010111 111111010101 111111110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 689
Words 122
Sentences 19
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 5
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 234
Words per stanza (avg) 59
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

36 sec read
84

Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC was an eminent English poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war. He later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the "Sherston trilogy". more…

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