Analysis of The Watchers

Edmund Blunden 1896 (London) – 1974 (Long Melford)



I heard the challenge 'Who goes there?'
Close kept but mine through midnight air
I answered and was recognized
And passed, and kindly thus advised;
'There's someone crawling though the grass
By the red ruin, or there was,
And them machine guns been a firin'
All the time the chaps was wirin',
So Sir if you're goin' out
You'll keep you 'ead well down no doubt.'

When will the stern fine 'Who goes there?'
Meet me again in midnight air?
And the gruff sentry's kindness, when
Will kindness have such power again?
It seems as, now I wake and brood,
And know my hour's decreptitude,
That on some dewy parapet
the sentry's spirit gazes yet,
Who will not speak with altered tone
When I am last am seem and known.


Scheme AABBXXCCDD AACCXBEECC
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 11010111 1111111 1100110 01010101 1110101 10110111 01011101 1010111 111111 11111111 11011111 1101011 0011101 110111001 11111101 011101 1111010 0110101 11111101 11111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 695
Words 135
Sentences 7
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 10
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 273
Words per stanza (avg) 65
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

41 sec read
73

Edmund Blunden

Edmund Charles Blunden, MC was an English poet, author and critic. more…

All Edmund Blunden poems | Edmund Blunden Books

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