Analysis of This is No Case of Petty Right or Wrong

Edward Thomas 1878 (London Borough of Lambeth) – 1917 (Pas-de-Calais)



This is no case of petty right or wrong
That politicians or philosophers
Can judge. I hate not Germans, nor grow hot
With love of Englishmen, to please newspapers.
Beside my hate for one fat patriot
My hatred of the Kaiser is love true:-
A kind of god he is, banging a gong.
But I have not to choose between the two,
Or between justice and injustice. Dinned
With war and argument I read no more
Than in the storm smoking along the wind
Athwart the wood. Two witches' cauldrons roar.
From one the weather shall rise clear and gay;
Out of the other an England beautiful
And like her mother that died yesterday.
Little I know or care if, being dull,
I shall miss something that historians
Can rake out of the ashes when perchance
The phoenix broods serene above their ken.
But with the best and meanest Englishmen
I am one in crying, God save England, lest
We lose what never slaves and cattle blessed.
The ages made her that made us from dust:
She is all we know and live by, and we trust
She is good and must endure, loving her so:
And as we love ourselves we hate her foe.


Scheme ABCBDEAECFGFHIHIJKLMNNOOPP
Poetic Form
Metre 1111110111 101010100 1111110111 111101110 0111111100 1101010111 0111111001 1111110101 1011000101 1101001111 1001100101 010111011 1101011101 11010110100 010101110 1011111101 1111010100 1111010101 0101010111 110101010 11101011101 1111010101 0101011111 11111011011 11101011001 01110011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,055
Words 208
Sentences 11
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 842
Words per stanza (avg) 205
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 03, 2023

1:02 min read
123

Edward Thomas

Philip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh poet and essayist. more…

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