Analysis of The Dug-out

Siegfried Sassoon 1886 (Matfield) – 1967 (Heytesbury)



Why do you lie with your legs ungainly huddled,
And one arm bent across your sullen, cold,
Exhausted face? It hurts my heart to watch you,
Deep-shadowed from the candle's guttering gold;
And you wonder why I shake you by the shoulder;
Drowsy, you mumble and sigh and turn your head...
You are too young to fall asleep for ever;
And when you sleep you remind me of the dead.  


Scheme ABCBDEDE
Poetic Form
Metre 111111101010 0111011101 01011111111 1101011001 011011111010 10110010111 11111101110 01111011101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 381
Words 72
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 8
Lines Amount 8
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 289
Words per stanza (avg) 70
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

21 sec read
342

Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC was an eminent English poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war. He later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the "Sherston trilogy". more…

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