Analysis of Hate Not - Fear Not

Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)



Kill if you must, but never hate:
Man is but grass and hate is blight,
The sun will scorch you soon or late,
Die wholesome then, since you must fight.

Hate is a fear, and fear is rot
That cankers root and fruit alike,
Fight cleanly then, hate not, fear not,
Strike with no madness when you strike.

Fever and fear distract the world,
But calm be you though madmen shout,
Through blazing fires of battle hurled,
Hate not, strike, fear not, stare Death out!


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF
Poetic Form Traditional rhyme
Quatrain 
Metre 11111101 11110111 01111111 11011111 11010111 11010101 11011111 11110111 10010101 11111101 110101101 11111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 451
Words 87
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 117
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 30, 2023

26 sec read
497

Robert Graves

Robert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, scholar/translator/writer of antiquity specializing in Classical Greece and Rome, novelist and soldier in World War One. more…

All Robert Graves poems | Robert Graves Books

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