Analysis of The General Elliott
Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)
He fell in victory's fierce pursuit,
Holed through and through with shot,
A sabre sweep had hacked him deep
Twixt neck and shoulderknot....
The potman cannot well recall,
The ostler never knew,
Whether his day was Malplaquet,
The Boyne or Waterloo.
But there he hangs for tavern sign,
With foolish bold regard
For cock and hen and loitering men
And wagons down the yard.
Raised high above the hayseed world
He smokes his painted pipe,
And now surveys the orchard ways,
The damsons clustering ripe.
He sees the churchyard slabs beyond,
Where country neighbours lie,
Their brief renown set lowly down;
His name assaults the sky.
He grips the tankard of brown ale
That spills a generous foam:
Oft-times he drinks, they say, and winks
At drunk men lurching home.
No upstart hero may usurp
That honoured swinging seat;
His seasons pass with pipe and glass
Until the tale's complete.
And paint shall keep his buttons bright
Though all the world's forgot
Whether he died for England's pride
By battle, or by pot.
Scheme | ABXA XCAC XDXD XEXE XFXF XGXG XHXH XBXB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (88%) |
Metre | 1101101 110111 01011111 1101 011011 01101 101111 01110 11111101 110101 110101001 010101 1101011 111101 01010101 011001 1101101 11011 11011101 110101 11010111 1101001 11111101 111101 111011 11101 11011101 010101 01111101 110101 10111101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 982 |
Words | 175 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 18, 2023
- 53 sec read
- 117 Views
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