Analysis of A Rhyme Of Friends.
Robert von Ranke Graves 1895 (Wimbledon, Surrey) – 1985 (Deià, Majorca)
(In a Style Skeltonical)
Listen now this time
Shortly to my rhyme
That herewith starts
About certain kind hearts
In those stricken parts
That lie behind Calais,
Old crones and aged men
And young children.
About the Picardais,
Who earned my thousand thanks,
Dwellers by the banks
Of mournful Somme
(God keep me therefrom
Until War ends),
These, then, are my friends:
Madame Averlant Lune,
From the town of Bethune;
Good Professeur la Brune
From that town also.
He played the piccolo,
And left his locks to grow.
Dear Madame Hojdes,
Sempstress of Saint Fe.
With Jules and Susette
And Antoinette.
Her children, my sweethearts,
For whom I made darts
Of paper to throw
In their mimic show,
"La guerre aux tranchees."
That was a pretty play.
There was old Jacques Caron,
Of the hamlet Mailleton.
He let me look
At his household book,
"Comment vivre cent ans."
What cares I took
To obey this wise book,
I, who feared each hour
Lest Death's cruel power
On the poppied plain
Might make cares vain!
By Noeus-les-mines
Lived old Adelphine,
Withered and clean,
She nodded and smiled,
And used me like a child.
How that old trot beguiled
My leisure with her chatter,
Gave me a china platter
Painted with Cherubim
And mottoes on the rim.
But when instead of thanks
I gave her francs
How her pride was hurt!
She counted francs as dirt,
(God knows, she was not rich)
She called the Kaiser bitch,
She spat on the floor,
Cursing this Prussian war,
That she had known before
Forty years past and more.
There was also "Tomi,"
With looks sweet and free,
Who called me cher ami.
This orphan's age was nine,
His folk were in their graves,
Else they were slaves
Behind the German line
To terror and rapine,
O, little friends of mine
How kind and brave you were,
You smoothed away care
When life was hard to bear.
And you, old women and men,
Who gave me billets then,
How patient and great-hearted!
Strangers though we started,
Yet friends we ever parted.
God bless you all: now ends
This homage to my friends.
Scheme | A BBCCCDEXCFFBBGGEHHIAICDJJCCIICA XEKKCKKLLMM XEXNNNLLBXFFOOPPQQQQ BRRSTTSESLUUEEVVVGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0011 10111 10111 1111 011011 01101 110101 11011 0110 0101 111101 10101 1101 1111 0111 11111 1011 101101 1111 11110 11010 011111 1101 1111 1101 001 01011 11111 11011 01101 1111 110101 111101 10101 1111 1111 10111 1111 101111 111110 111010 1011 1111 1111 111 1001 11001 011101 111101 1101010 1101010 1011 01101 110111 1101 10111 110111 111111 110101 11101 101101 111101 101101 11101 11101 111110 11111 110011 1101 010101 11001 110111 110110 11011 111111 0111001 111101 1100110 101110 1111010 111111 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,919 |
Words | 364 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 31, 11, 20, 19 |
Lines Amount | 82 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 311 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 72 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 6 Views
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"A Rhyme Of Friends." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56555/a-rhyme-of-friends.>.
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