Analysis of Agamemnon In The Fight

George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)



[Iliad, B. XI. V. 148]

These, then, he left, and away where ranks were now clashing the thickest,
Onward rushed, and with him rushed all of the bright-greaved Achaians.
Foot then footmen slew, that were flying from direful compulsion,
Horse at the horsemen (up from off under them mounted the dust-cloud,
Up off the plain, raised up cloud-thick by the thundering horse-hooves)
Hewed with the sword's sharp edge; and so meanwhile Lord Agamemnon
Followed, chasing and slaughtering aye, on-urgeing the Argives.

Now, as when fire voracious catches the unclipped woodland,
This way bears it and that the great whirl of the wind, and the scrubwood
Stretches uptorn, flung forward alength by the fire's fury rageing,
So beneath Atreides Agamemnon heads of the scattered
Trojans fell; and in numbers amany the horses, neck-stiffened,
Rattled their vacant cars down the roadway gaps of the war-field,
Missing the blameless charioteers, but, for these, they were outstretched
Flat upon earth, far dearer to vultures than to their home-mates.


Scheme X ABXXBXB XAXXXXXB
Poetic Form
Metre 100111 1111001110110010 1010111110111 1111101011010 1101011110110011 110111111010011 110111011101 1010010011101 1111001010011 111101011101001 10111011010101 10110111010 10100101010110 10110110111011 1001011111001 101111011011111
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,024
Words 166
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 1, 7, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 52
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 275
Words per stanza (avg) 55
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

50 sec read
129

George Meredith

George Meredith was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times. more…

All George Meredith poems | George Meredith Books

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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A A turn
    B Line break
    C Dithyramb
    D Enjambment