Analysis of The Hapless Army
Edward George Dyson 1865 (Ballarat, Victoria) – 1931 (Saint Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria)
“A soldier braving disease and death on
the battlefield has a seven times better chance
of life than a new-born baby.”—Secretary of
War, U.S.A.
The Hapless Army from the dark
That lies beyond creation,
All blinded by the solar spark,
And leaderless in lands forlorn,
Come stumbling through the mists of morn;
And foes in close formation,
With taloned fingers dripping red,
Bestrew the sodden world with dead.
The Hapless Army bears no sword;
Fell destiny fulfilling,
It marches where the murder horde,
Amid the fair new urge of life,
With poison stream, and shot, and knife,
Make carnival of killing.
No war above black Hell's abyss
Knows evil grim and foul as this.
In pallid hillocks lie the slain
The callous heaven under;
Like twisted hieroglyphs of pain
They fleck earth to oblivion's brink,
As far as human mind may think,
Accusing God with thunder
Of dreadful silence. Nought it serves—
Fate ever calls the doomed reserves!
Still with Death's own monotony
The innocents are falling,
Like dead leaves in a forest dree;
And still the conscript armies come.
No banners theirs, no beat of drum,
No merry bugles calling!
Mad ally in the Slayers' train,
Man slaps and sorrows for the slain!
Scheme | XXXX ABACCBDD EFEGGFHH IJIKKJLL XFJMMFII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101001011 01010101101 111011101001 1111 01010101 1101010 11010101 01000101 110010111 0101010 1110101 1010111 01010111 1100010 11010101 01011111 11010101 1100110 11011101 11010111 0101101 0101010 1100111 111111 11110111 0101110 11010111 11010101 11110100 0100110 11100101 0101101 11011111 1101010 1100011 11010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,207 |
Words | 209 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 189 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 46 Views
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