Analysis of Exposure
Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us . . .
Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . .
Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient . . .
Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,
But nothing happens.
Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire.
Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.
Northward incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles,
Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war.
What are we doing here?
The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . .
We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.
Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army
Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of gray,
But nothing happens.
Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.
Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow,
With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause and renew,
We watch them wandering up and down the wind's nonchalance,
But nothing happens.
Pale flakes with lingering stealth come feeling for our faces--
We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed,
Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed,
Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses.
Is it that we are dying?
Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires glozed
With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there;
For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs;
Shutters and doors all closed: on us the doors are closed--
We turn back to our dying.
Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn;
Now ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit.
For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid;
Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born,
For love of God seems dying.
To-night, His frost will fasten on this mud and us,
Shrivelling many hands and puckering foreheads crisp.
The burying-party, picks and shovels in their shaking grasp,
Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,
But nothing happens.
Scheme | abbaC xddxx effxC xexxC xxgxh bxxgh xxxxh axxxC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101100100111111 1011010101110 1101011010010100 10110101010010 11010 1011011101010 1101001101110 100100010010010 11101011101 111101 010100110111 1101111101110 110001010010 0111011100111 11010 1001011101010 110101110111 11101111001 11110010101101 11010 111100111011010 11011101010111 10111011111 1011010101010 1111110 1010111101101 110111010101 11001001010111 100111110111 11111010 110111011101 110111111111 11010011011101 1111111101 1111110 111111011101 11010111 010010101001101 110111011111 11010 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,987 |
Words | 341 |
Sentences | 30 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 196 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:43 min read
- 8 Views
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"Exposure" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56945/exposure>.
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