Analysis of The Call
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
(France, August first, 1914)
Far and near, high and clear,
Hark to the call of War!
Over the gorse and the golden dells,
Ringing and swinging of clamorous bells,
Praying and saying of wild farewells:
War! War! War!
High and low, all must go:
Hark to the shout of War!
Leave to the women the harvest yield;
Gird ye, men, for the sinister field;
A sabre instead of a scythe to wield:
War! Red War!
Rich and poor, lord and boor,
Hark to the blast of War!
Tinker and tailor and millionaire,
Actor in triumph and priest in prayer,
Comrades now in the hell out there,
Sweep to the fire of War!
Prince and page, sot and sage,
Hark to the roar of War!
Poet, professor and circus clown,
Chimney-sweeper and fop o' the town,
Into the pot and be melted down:
Into the pot of War!
Women all, hear the call,
The pitiless call of War!
Look your last on your dearest ones,
Brothers and husbands, fathers, sons:
Swift they go to the ravenous guns,
The gluttonous guns of War.
Everywhere thrill the air
The maniac bells of War.
There will be little of sleeping to-night;
There will be wailing and weeping to-night;
Death's red sickle is reaping to-night:
War! War! War!
Scheme | x xabbbA xaccca xaddda xaeeea xabbba dafffA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101 101101 110111 100100101 10010111 10010111 111 101111 110111 110100101 111101001 0100110111 111 101101 110111 10010001 100100101 1100111 1101011 101101 110111 100100101 101001101 010101101 010111 101101 0100111 11111101 10010101 111101001 0100111 10101 010111 1111011011 1111001011 111011011 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,196 |
Words | 215 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 126 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 118 Views
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"The Call" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32513/the-call>.
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