THE BATTLEFIELD

Phil Roberts 1957 (Melbourne)



The battlefield appears
Just after each midnight,
Ghostly warriors warring again
Where they used to fight.

Knights in rusted armour
Or covered in chainmail,
Fighting till the end of time
Determined never to quail.

Reliving ancient conflicts
Where they used to battle,
Fighting throughout space and time
To the call of the death rattle.

On the field not far from Hell
Long-dead soldiers engage in war,
An outpost near the netherworld
On plains once soaked in gore.

A battleground now overgrown
Where yester-wars were waged,
Many thousands died back then
And most stayed in their graves.

But a few rise up each night
To fight old conflicts once again,
Swords and lances loudly crash
In the war of Once-Were Men.

Nightly various old campaigns
Are repeated until daylight,
Many thousands die once more
Upon this torrid night.

Ancient confrontations are refought
Until the very end of days,
Many thousand re-die each night
Before returning to their graves.

THE END
© Copyright 2021 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

About this poem

The battlefield appears Just after each midnight, Ghostly warriors warring again Where they used to fight.

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Written on July 28, 2021

Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on September 10, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

50 sec read
10

Quick analysis:

Scheme XABA XCDC XCDC CEXE XXBF ABXB XAEA AXAF XXC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 990
Words 167
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3

Phil Roberts

I turn 65 on the 31st of January 2022. I love cats, rock music, and horror fiction and poetry more…

All Phil Roberts poems | Phil Roberts Books

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    "THE BATTLEFIELD" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/109213/the-battlefield>.

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