Analysis of Conscripts
Siegfried Sassoon 1886 (Matfield) – 1967 (Heytesbury)
‘Fall in, that awkward squad, and strike no more
Attractive attitudes! Dress by the right!
The luminous rich colours that you wore
Have changed to hueless khaki in the night.
Magic? What’s magic got to do with you?
There’s no such thing! Blood’s red, and skies are blue.’
They gasped and sweated, marching up and down.
I drilled them till they cursed my raucous shout.
Love chucked his lute away and dropped his crown.
Rhyme got sore heels and wanted to fall out.
‘Left, right! Press on your butts!’ They looked at me
Reproachful; how I longed to set them free!
I gave them lectures on Defence, Attack;
They fidgeted and shuffled, yawned and sighed,
And boggled at my questions. Joy was slack,
And Wisdom gnawed his fingers, gloomy-eyed.
Young Fancy—how I loved him all the while—
Stared at his note-book with a rueful smile.
Their training done, I shipped them all to France,
Where most of those I’d loved too well got killed.
Rapture and pale Enchantment and Romance,
And many a sickly, slender lord who’d filled
My soul long since with lutanies of sin,
Went home, because they couldn’t stand the din.
But the kind, common ones that I despised
(Hardly a man of them I’d count as friend),
What stubborn-hearted virtues they disguised!
They stood and played the hero to the end,
Won gold and silver medals bright with bars,
And marched resplendent home with crowns and stars.
Scheme | ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHII JKJKLL MNMNOO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1011010111 010101101 010011111 111110001 1001011111 1111110111 1101010101 1111111101 1111010111 1111010111 1111111111 11111111 1111010101 11010101 0101110111 0101110101 1101111101 1111110101 1101111111 1111111111 1001010001 01001010111 11111111 110111101 1011011101 1001111111 1101010101 1101010101 1101010111 0101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,404 |
Words | 245 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 215 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:13 min read
- 71 Views
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"Conscripts" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34864/conscripts>.
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