Analysis of Wirers

Siegfried Sassoon 1886 (Matfield) – 1967 (Heytesbury)



‘Pass it along, the wiring party’s going out’—
And yawning sentries mumble, ‘Wirers going out.’
Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled thud,
They toil with stealthy haste and anger in their blood.

The Boche sends up a flare. Black forms stand rigid there,
Stock-still like posts; then darkness, and the clumsy ghosts
Stride hither and thither, whispering, tripped by clutching snare
Of snags and tangles.
Ghastly dawn with vaporous coasts
Gleams desolate along the sky, night’s misery ended.

Young Hughes was badly hit; I heard him carried away,
Moaning at every lurch; no doubt he’ll die to-day.
But we can say the front-line wire’s been safely mended.


Scheme AABB CDCXDB EEX
Poetic Form
Metre 11010101101 01010101101 11010011101 111101010011 011101111101 111111000101 1100110011101 11010 101111 11000101110010 1111011111001 1011001111111 11110111011010
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 690
Words 110
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 6, 3
Lines Amount 13
Letters per line (avg) 41
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 176
Words per stanza (avg) 36
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

33 sec read
155

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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