Analysis of Camp Follower's Song, Gomal River
Violet Nicolson 1865 (Stoke Bishop, Gloucestershire) – 1904 (Madras, Madras Province)
We have left Gul Kach behind us,
Are marching on Apozai, -
Where pleasure and rest are waiting
To welcome us by and by.
We're falling back from the Gomal,
Across the Gir-dao plain,
The camping ground is deserted,
We'll never come back again.
Along the rocks and the defiles,
The mules and the camels wind.
Good-bye to Rahimut-Ullah,
The man who is left behind.
For some we lost in the skirmish,
And some were killed in the fight,
But he was captured by fever,
In the sentry pit, at night.
A rifle shot had been swifter,
Less trouble a sabre thrust,
But his Fate decided fever,
And each man dies as he must.
Behind us, red in the distance.
The wavering flames rise high,
The flames of our burning grass-huts,
Against the black of the sky.
We hear the sound of the river,
An ever-lessening moan,
The hearts of us all turn backwards
To where he is left alone.
We sing up a little louder,
We know that we feel bereft,
We're leaving the camp together,
And only one of us left.
The only one, out of many,
And each must come to his end,
I wish I could stop this singing,
He happened to be my friend.
We're falling back from the Gomal
We're marching on Apozai,
And pleasure and rest are waiting
To welcome us by and by.
Perhaps the feast will taste bitter,
The lips of the girls less kind, -
Because of Rahimut-Ullah,
The man who is left behind!
Scheme | aabC Dxxx aedE xfgf ghgh xcxc gixi gjgj xkbk DabC gedE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (73%) |
Metre | 11111011 11011 11001110 1101101 1101101 010111 01011010 1101101 0101001 0100101 11111 0111101 11110010 0101001 11110110 0010111 01011110 1100101 1111010 0111111 01110010 0100111 011101011 0101101 11011010 1101001 01111110 1111101 11101010 1111101 11001010 0101111 01011110 0111111 11111110 1101111 1101101 11011 01001110 1101101 01011110 0110111 01111 0111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,324 |
Words | 264 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 93 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 7 Views
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"Camp Follower's Song, Gomal River" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56059/camp-follower%27s-song%2C-gomal-river>.
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