Analysis of Preparations For Victory
Edmund Blunden 1896 (London) – 1974 (Long Melford)
My soul, dread not the pestilence that hags
The valley; flinch not you, my body young.
At these great shouting smokes and snarling jags
Of fiery iron; as yet may not be flung
The dice that claims you. Manly move among
These ruins, and what you must do, do well;
Look, here are gardens, there mossed boughs are hung
With apples who bright cheeks none might excel,
And there's a house as yet unshattered by a shell.
"I'll do my best," the soul makes sad reply,
"And I will mark the yet unmurdered tree,
The tokens of dear homes that court the eye,
And yet I see them not as I would see.
Hovering between, a ghostly enemy.
Sickens the light, and poisoned, withered, wan,
The least defiled turns desperate to me."
The body, poor unpitied Caliban,
Parches and sweats and grunts to win the name of Man.
Days or eternities like swelling waves
Surge on, and still we drudge in this dark maze;
The bombs and coils and cans by strings of slaves
Are borne to serve the coming day of days;
Pale sleep in slimy cellars scarce allays
With its brief blank the burden. Look, we lose;
The sky is gone, the lightless, drenching haze
Of rainstorms chills the bone; earth, air are foes,
The black fiend leaps brick-red as life's last picture goes.
Scheme | ABABBCBCC DEDAEFEFX AAAAAAAAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010011 0101111101 1111010101 110010111111 0111110101 1100111111 1111011111 1101111101 0101111101 1111011101 01110111 0101111101 0111111111 10001010100 101010101 01111011 010111 10101110111 1111101 1101110111 0101011111 1111010111 1101010101 1111010111 011101101 111011111 011111111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,232 |
Words | 230 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 27 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 318 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 75 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:09 min read
- 104 Views
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"Preparations For Victory" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9127/preparations-for-victory>.
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