Analysis of The New Mistress
Alfred Edward Housman 1859 – 1936
"Oh, sick I am to see you, will you never let me be?
You may be good for something, but you are not good for me.
Oh, go where you are wanted, for you are not wanted here.
And that was all the farewell when I parted from my dear.
"I will go where I am wanted, to a lady born and bred
Who will dress me free for nothing in a uniform of red;
She will not be sick to see me if I only keep it clean:
I will go where I am wanted for a soldier of the Queen.
"I will go where I am wanted, for the sergeant does not mind;
He may be sick to see me but he treats me very kind:
He gives me beer and breakfast and a ribbon for my cap,
And I never knew a sweetheart spend her money on a chap.
"I will go where I am wanted, where there's room for one or two,
And the men are none too many for the work there is to do;
Where the standing line wears thinner and the dropping dead lie thick;
And the enemies of England they shall see me and be sick."
Scheme | AAXX BBCC DDEE FFGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 11111111110111 11111101111111 11111101111101 0111011110111 111111101010101 11111110001011 111111111110111 111111101010101 111111101010111 11111111111101 11110100010111 01101011010101 111111101111111 001111101011111 101011100010111 001001101111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 940 |
Words | 207 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 44 |
Words per line (avg) | 13 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 175 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 213 Views
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"The New Mistress" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/924/the-new-mistress>.
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