Analysis of Return - 1917
Stephen Vincent Benet 1898 (Bethlehem) – 1943 (New York City)
"The College will reopen Sept. --."
`Catalogue'.
I was just aiming at the jagged hole
Torn in the yellow sandbags of their trench,
When something threw me sideways with a wrench,
And the skies seemed to shrivel like a scroll
And disappear . . . and propped against the bole
Of a big elm I lay, and watched the clouds
Float through the blue, deep sky in speckless crowds,
And I was clean again, and young, and whole.
Lord, what a dream that was! And what a doze
Waiting for Bill to come along to class!
I've cut it now -- and he -- Oh, hello, Fred!
Why, what's the matter? -- here -- don't be an ass,
Sit down and tell me! -- What do you suppose?
I dreamed I . . . am I . . . wounded? "You are dead."
Scheme | XX ABBAACCA DEFEDF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010101 10 111101011 100101111 110111101 0011110101 001010101 1011110101 110111011 0111010101 1101110101 1011110111 1111011011 1101011111 1101111101 1111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 707 |
Words | 138 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 168 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
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"Return - 1917" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35809/return---1917>.
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