Analysis of An Old Twenty-Third Man
Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)
“Is that the Three-and-Twentieth, Strabo mine,
Marching below, and we still gulping wine?”
From the sad magic of his fragrant cup
The red-faced old centurion started up,
Cursed, battered on the table. “No,” he said,
“Not that! The Three-and-Twentieth Legion’s dead,
Dead in the first year of this damned campaign—
The Legion’s dead, dead, and won’t rise again.
Pity? Rome pities her brave lads that die,
But we need pity also, you and I,
Whom Gallic spear and Belgian arrow miss,
Who live to see the Legion come to this,
Unsoldierlike, slovenly, bent on loot,
Grumblers, diseased, unskilled to thrust or shoot.
O, brown cheek, muscled shoulder, sturdy thigh!
Where are they now? God! watch it struggle by,
The sullen pack of ragged ugly swine.
Is that the Legion, Gracchus? Quick, the wine!”
“Strabo,” said Gracchus, “you are strange tonight.
The Legion is the Legion; it’s all right.
If these new men are slovenly, in your thinking,
God damn it! you’ll not better them by drinking.
They all try, Strabo; trust their hearts and hands.
The Legion is the Legion while Rome stands,
And these same men before the autumn’s fall
Shall bang old Vercingetorix out of Gaul.”
Scheme | AABBCCDEFFGGHHFFAAIIJJKKLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010011 1001011101 1011011101 01110100101 1101010111 11010100101 1001111101 0101101101 101101111 1111010101 1101010101 1111010111 1100111 101011111 1111010101 1111111101 0101110101 110101101 11111101 0101010111 111111000110 11111101110 111111101 0101010111 011101011 1111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,202 |
Words | 205 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 26 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 894 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 198 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 110 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"An Old Twenty-Third Man" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31100/an-old-twenty-third-man>.
Discuss this Robert Graves poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In