Sporting Acquaintances
Siegfried Sassoon 1886 (Matfield) – 1967 (Heytesbury)
I watched old squatting Chimpanzee: he traced
His painful patterns in the dirt: I saw
Red-haired Ourang-utang, whimsical-faced,
Chewing a sportsman's meditative straw:
I'd met them years ago, and half-forgotten
They'd come to grief (but how, I'd never heard,
Poor beggars!); still, it seemed so rude and rotten
To stand and gape at them with never a word.
I ventured 'Ages since we met,' and tried
My candid smile of friendship; no success.
One scratched his hairy thigh, while t'other sighed
And glanced away. I saw they liked me less
Than when, on Epsom Downs, in cloudless weather,
We backed The Tetrarch and got drunk together.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 20, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 93 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGG |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 626 |
Words | 110 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
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"Sporting Acquaintances" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/34931/sporting-acquaintances>.
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