Analysis of Come Ye Home
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
Listening (said the old, grey Digger) . . .
With my finger on the trigger
I was listening in the trenches on a dark night long ago,
And a lull came in the fighting,
Save a sudden gun-flash lighting
Some black verge. And I fell thinking of lost mates I used to know.
Listening, waiting, stern watch keeping,
I heard little whispers creeping
In from where, 'mid fair fields tortured, No-man's land loomed out before.
And well I knew good mates were lying
There, grim-faced and death-defying,
In that filth and noisome litter and the horror that was war.
List'ning so, a mood came o'er me;
And 'twas like a vision bore me
To a deeper, lonelier darkness where the souls of dead men roam;
Where they wander, strife unheading;
And I heard a wistful pleading
Down the lanes where lost men journey: 'Come ye home! Ah, come ye home!'
'Ye who fail, yet triumph failing'
Ye who fall, yet falling soar
Into realms where, brother hailing
Brother, bids farewell to war;
Ye for whom this red hell ended,
With the last great, shuddering breath.
In the mute, uncomprehended,
Dreamful dignity of death;
Back to your own land's sweet breast
Come ye home, lads - home to rest.'
Listening in my old bush shanty
(Said grey Digger) living's scanty
These dark days for won-out soldiers and I'd not the luck of some
But from out the ether coming
I could hear a vast crowd's humming
Hear the singing, then - the Silence. And I knew the Hour had come.
Listening, silent as I waited,
And the picture recreated,
I could see the kneeling thousands by the Shrine's approaches there.
Then, above those heads low-bending,
Like an orison ascending,
Saw a multitude's great yearning rise into the quivering air.
Listening so, again the seeming
Of a vision came; and dreaming
There, I saw from out high Heaven spread above the great Shrine's dome,
From the wide skies overarching
I beheld battalions marching -
Mates of mine! My comrades, singing: Coming home! Coming home!
'We who bore the cost of glory,
We who paid the price of peace,
Now that, from this earth, war's story
Shall, please God, for ever cease,
To this Shrine that you have lifted
For a symbol and a sign
Of men's hearts, come we who drifted
Thro' long years, oh, mates of mine!
To earth, my brothers' grieving blest
Now come we home, lads - home to rest.'
Scheme | AABCCB CCDCCD EEFBCF CDCDGHGHII EEJCCJ GXKCCK CCFCCF ELELGMGMII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 100101110 11101010 1110000101011101 00110010 10101110 111011101111111 100101110 11101010 011111101111101 011111010 11101010 01101100010111 111011101 01101011 10101101011111 111011 01101010 101111101111111 11111010 1111101 01111010 101111 11111110 10111001 0011 110011 1111111 1111111 100011110 1110110 111111100110111 11101010 11101110 1010101001101011 100101110 0010100 111010101010101 10111110 111010 10111010101001 100101010 10101010 111111101010111 1011100 1101010 1111110101101 11101110 1110111 11111110 1111101 11111110 1010001 11111110 1111111 11110101 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,250 |
Words | 413 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 10, 6, 6, 6, 10 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 221 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 08, 2023
- 2:06 min read
- 121 Views
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"Come Ye Home" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6262/come-ye-home>.
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