Analysis of For a War Memorial

Gilbert Keith Chesterton 1874 (Kensington, London) – 1936 (Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire)



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The hucksters haggle in the mart
The cars and carts go by;
Senates and schools go droning on;
For dead things cannot die.

A storm stooped on the place of tombs
With bolts to blast and rive;
But these be names of many men
The lightning found alive.

If usurers rule and rights decay
And visions view once more
Great Carthage like a golden shell
Gape hollow on the shore,

Still to the last of crumbling time
Upon this stone be read
How many men of England died
To prove they were not dead.


Scheme X XAXA XBXB XCXC XDXD
Poetic Form
Metre 010010100101010010 01010001 010111 1011101 111101 01110111 111101 11111101 010101 1110101 010111 11010101 110101 110111001 011111 11011101 111011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 542
Words 104
Sentences 4
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 1, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 88
Words per stanza (avg) 20
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
88

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an influential English writer of the early 20th century His diverse output included journalism philosophy poetry biography Christian apologetics fantasy and detective fiction Gilbert Keith Chesterton KC*SG was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Time magazine observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out." more…

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