Analysis of A Child's Nightmare
Robert von Ranke Graves 1895 (Wimbledon, Surrey) – 1985 (Deià, Majorca)
Through long nursery nights he stood
By my bed unwearying,
Loomed gigantic, formless, queer,
Purring in my haunted ear
That same hideous nightmare thing,
Talking, as he lapped my blood,
In a voice cruel and flat,
Saying for ever, "Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!..."
That one word was all he said,
That one word through all my sleep,
In monotonous mock despair.
Nonsense may be light as air,
But there's Nonsense that can keep
Horror bristling round the head,
When a voice cruel and flat
Says for ever, "Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!..."
He had faded, he was gone
Years ago with Nursery Land
When he leapt on me again
From the clank of a night train,
Overpowered me foot and head,
Lapped my blood, while on and on
The old voice cruel and flat
Says for ever, "Cat!... Cat!... Cat!..."
Morphia drowsed, again I lay
In a crater by High Wood:
He was there with straddling legs,
Staring eyes as big as eggs,
Purring as he lapped my blood,
His black bulk darkening the day,
With a voice cruel and flat,
"Cat!... Cat!... Cat!..." he said,
"Cat!... Cat!..."
When I'm shot through heart and head,
And there's no choice but to die,
The last word I'll hear, no doubt,
Won't be "Charge!" or "Bomb them out!"
Nor the stretcher-bearer's cry,
"Let that body be, he's dead!"
But a voice cruel and flat
Saying for ever, "Cat!... Cat!... Cat!"
Scheme | ABXXBCDD EFGGFEDD XXXXEXDD HAIICHDED EJKKJEDD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11100111 1111 101011 1001101 1110011 1011111 0011001 10110111 1111111 1111111 00100101 1011111 1110111 10100101 1011001 1110111 1110111 10111001 1111101 1011011 0101101 1111101 0111001 1110111 110111 0010111 1111101 1011111 1011111 11110001 1011001 11111 11 1111101 0111111 0111111 1111111 101011 1110111 1011001 10110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,282 |
Words | 249 |
Sentences | 26 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 9, 8 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 188 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 16 Views
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"A Child's Nightmare" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56549/a-child%27s-nightmare>.
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