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

Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC was an eminent English poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war. He later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the "Sherston trilogy". more…

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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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