Analysis of Prelude to an Unwritten Masterpiece
Siegfried Sassoon 1886 (Matfield) – 1967 (Heytesbury)
You like my bird-sung gardens: wings and flowers;
Calm landscapes for emotion; star-lit lawns;
And Youth against the sun-rise ... ‘Not profound;
‘But such a haunting music in the sound:
‘Do it once more; it helps us to forget’.
Last night I dreamt an old recurring scene—
Some complex out of childhood; (sex, of course!)
I can’t remember how the trouble starts;
And then I’m running blindly in the sun
Down the old orchard, and there’s something cruel
Chasing me; someone roused to a grim pursuit
Of clumsy anger ... Crash! I’m through the fence
And thrusting wildly down the wood that’s dense
With woven green of safety; paths that wind
Moss-grown from glade to glade; and far behind,
One thwarted yell; then silence. I’ve escaped.
That’s where it used to stop. Last night I went
Onward until the trees were dark and huge,
And I was lost, cut off from all return
By swamps and birdless jungles. I’d no chance
Of getting home for tea. I woke with shivers,
And thought of crocodiles in crawling rivers.
Some day I’ll build (more ruggedly than Doughty)
A dark tremendous song you’ll never hear.
My beard will be a snow-storm, drifting whiter
On bowed, prophetic shoulders, year by year.
And some will say, ‘His work has grown so dreary.’
Others, ‘He used to be a charming writer’.
And you, my friend, will query—
‘Why can’t you cut it short, you pompous blighter?’
Scheme | AXBBX XXXXXXCCDDX XXXXAA EFGXEGEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11111101010 111010111 0101011101 1101010001 1111111101 1111110101 110111111 1101010101 0111010001 10110011010 1011110101 1101011101 0101010111 1101110111 1111110101 1101110101 1111111111 1001010101 0111111101 110110111 11011111110 0111001010 11111100110 0101011101 11110111010 1101010111 01111111110 10111101010 0111110 1111111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,412 |
Words | 243 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 11, 6, 8 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 261 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 91 Views
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"Prelude to an Unwritten Masterpiece" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34919/prelude-to-an-unwritten-masterpiece>.
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