Analysis of Inkerman. The Battle Field by Moonlight.
Above the vale of Inkerman,
Calmly the moon's rays fell,
Revealing as by light of day,
That deep and lonely dell;
Tchernaya's waters as a band
Of silver graceful flowed,
But who can paint the ghastly scene,
Which those bright rays disclosed!
Thickly as leaves around the path
Through copse and brush-wood dense,
Lay piles of dead and wounded men,
Slain in that fierce defense.
The fearful moan, the struggles fierce,
The hoarse and gurgling cry
Comes on the night wind sweeping past,
Of mortal agony!
Around were groups of comrades true,
To succour those who still
From bloody contest breathing lay,
Upon that fatal hill.
Their slippery fearful way they take
Through paths beslimed with gore,
Ne'er on those Crimean hills had moon
Such sight revealed before.
But who are these with noiseless tread,
Who hurry fearful by,
Now fling them down beside the dead,
With soul-despairing cry,
As trembling, with wild eager gaze,
They search with sickening dread,
And the moon's rays too sure reveal,
Their husband with the dead!
Yet one redeeming feature still
Those moonbeams yet displayed,
Of men who with their British hearts
Their enemies forgave.
And tended gently, lovingly,
Their cruel bitter foe,
Who never yet had quarter given
To our brave men laid low.
For even then, above their heads,
Came murd'rous bullets sent
Among our brave and gallant men,
On mercy's errand bent;
And some there were who fiendish slew,
With their last parting breath,
The very hand which tended them,
Upon that field of death.
Scheme | ABCBXXAXXDADXEXA FGCGXHAH IEIEXIXI GXXXXJAJ XKAKFLXL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010111 100111 01011111 110101 110101 110101 11110101 111101 10110101 110111 11110101 101101 01010101 0101001 11011101 110100 0101111 11111 11010101 011101 110010111 11111 11101111 110101 1111111 110101 11110101 110101 110011101 1111001 00111101 110101 11010101 11101 11111101 110001 01010100 110101 110111010 1101111 11010111 11101 011010101 11101 01101101 111101 01011101 011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,568 |
Words | 256 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 240 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 105 Views
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"Inkerman. The Battle Field by Moonlight." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4843/inkerman.-the-battle-field-by-moonlight.>.
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