Analysis of 1887
Alfred Edward Housman 1859 – 1936
From Clee to heaven the beacon burns,
The shires have seen it plain,
From north and south the sign returns
And beacons burn again.
Look left, look right, the hills are bright,
The dales are light between,
Because 'tis fifty years to-night
That God has saved the Queen.
Now, when the flame they watch not towers
About the soil they trod,
Lads, we'll remember friends of ours
Who shared the work with God.
To skies that knit their heartstrings right,
To fields that bred them brave,
The saviours come not home to-night:
Themselves they could not save.
It dawns in Asia, tombstones show
And Shropshire names are read;
And the Nile spills his overflow
Beside the Severn's dead.
We pledge in peace by farm and town
The Queen they served in war,
And fire the beacons up and down
The land they perished for.
"God save the Queen" we living sing,
From height to height 'tis heard;
And with the rest your voices ring,
Lads of the Fifty-third.
Oh, God will save her, fear you not:
Be you the men you've been,
Get you the sons your fathers got,
And God will save the Queen.
Scheme | AXAX BCBC DEDE BFBF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MXMC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 111100101 011111 11010101 010101 11110111 011101 01110111 111101 110111110 010111 110101110 110111 1111111 111111 0111111 011111 1101011 01111 0011110 01011 11011101 011101 010010101 011101 11011101 111111 01011101 110101 11110111 110111 11011101 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,069 |
Words | 197 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 11, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 197 Views
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"1887" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/866/1887>.
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