Analysis of Miners
Wilfred Owen 1893 (Oswestry) – 1918 (Sambre–Oise Canal)
There was a whispering in my hearth,
A sigh of the coal.
Grown wistful of a former earth
It might recall.
I listened for a tale of leaves
And smothered ferns,
Frond-forests; and the low, sly lives
Before the fawns.
My fire might show steam-phantoms simmer
From Time's old cauldron,
Before the birds made nests in summer,
Or men had children.
But the coals were murmuring of their mine,
And moans down there
Of boys that slept wry sleep, and men
Writhing for air.
And I saw white bones in the cinder-shard,
Bones without number.
For many hearts with coal are charred,
And few remember.
I thought of all that worked dark pits
Of war, and died
Digging the rock where Death reputes
Peace lies indeed.
Comforted years will sit soft-chaired
In rooms of amber;
The years will stretch their hands, well-cheered
By our lifes' ember.
The centuries will burn rich loads
With which we groaned,
Whose warmth shall lull their dreaming lids,
While songs are crooned.
But they will not dream of us poor lads
Left in the ground.
Scheme | XXXX AXXA BCBC XDXD EBEB XXAX XBXB XXXEXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110100011 01101 11010101 111 11010111 0101 11000111 0101 1101111010 11110 010111010 11110 1010100111 0111 11111101 1011 0111100101 10110 11011111 01010 11111111 1101 1001111 1101 10011111 01110 01111111 110110 01001111 1111 11111101 1111 111111111 1001 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 986 |
Words | 182 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 6 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 26, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 130 Views
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