Analysis of Two Graves
To sepulcher my mouldy bones
I bough a pile of noble stones,
And half a year a sculptor spent
To hew my marble monument,
The stateliest to rear its head
In all this city of the dead.
And generations passing through
Will gape, and ask: What did he do
To earn this tomb so rich and rare,
In Attic grace beyond compare?
How was his life in honour spent,
To worthy this proud monument?
What did I do" Well, nothing much.
'Tis true I had the Midas touch.
A million pounds I made wherewith
To glorify the name: John Smith;
Yet not a soul wept for me when
Death raft me from my fellow men.
My sculptor wins undying fame,
While I, who paid, am just a name.
A wooden cross surveys my bones,
With on it stenciled: Peter Jones.
And round it are five hundred more;
(A proper job did old man War!)
So young they were, so fresh, so fit,
So hopeful - that's the hell of it.
The old are sapped and ripe to die,
But in the flush of Spring was I.
I might have fathered children ten,
To come to grips with sterling men;
And now a cross in weeds to rot,
Is all to show how fierce I fought.
The old default, the young must pay;
My life was wasted, thrown away.
While people gladden, to forget
The bitterness of vein regret,
With not a soul to morn for me
My skull grins up in mockery.
. . . Pale crosses greet the grieving stars,
And always will be - War and Wars.
Scheme | AABCDD EEFFBC GGHHIIJJ AAKKLL MMIIXX NNOOPPXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 111101 11011101 01010101 11110100 011111 01110101 0010101 11011111 11111101 01010101 1111011 11011100 11111101 11110101 0101111 1100111 11011111 11111101 11010101 11111101 01010111 11110101 01111101 01011111 11101111 11010111 01110111 10011111 11110101 11111101 01010111 11111111 01010111 11110101 11010101 01001101 11011111 11110100 11010101 0111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,336 |
Words | 273 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 8, 6, 6, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 170 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 37 Views
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"Two Graves" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32723/two-graves>.
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