Analysis of Ghost Raddled

Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)



'Come, surly fellow, come! A song!'
What, madmen? Sing to you?
Choose from the clouded tales of wrong
And terror I bring to you.

Of a night so torn with cries,
Honest men sleeping
Start awake with glaring eyes,
Bone-chilled, flesh creeping.

Of spirits in the web hung room
Up above the stable,
Groans, knockings in the gloom,
The dancing table.

Of demons in the dry well
That cheep and mutter,
Clanging of an unseen bell,
Blood choking the gutter.

Of lust frightful, past belief,
Lurking unforgotten,
Unrestrainable endless grief
From breasts long rotten.

A song? What laughter or what song
Can this house remember?
Do flowers and butterflies belong
To a blind December?


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ AHAH
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11010101 110111 11010111 0101111 1011111 10110 1011101 11110 11000111 101010 11001 01010 1100011 11010 1011011 110010 1110101 101 1101 11110 01110111 111010 11001001 101010
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 655
Words 117
Sentences 13
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 88
Words per stanza (avg) 19
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
90

Robert Graves

Robert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, scholar/translator/writer of antiquity specializing in Classical Greece and Rome, novelist and soldier in World War One. more…

All Robert Graves poems | Robert Graves Books

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    D a limerick