Fulfilment.

Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols 1893 (Shanklin, ) – 1944 ( Cambridge,)



Was there love once? I have forgotten her.
Was there grief once? grief yet is mine.
Other loves I have, men rough, but men who stir
More grief, more joy, than love of thee and thine.
  
Faces cheerful, full of whimsical mirth,
Lined by the wind, burned by the sun;
Bodies enraptured by the abounding earth,
As whose children we are brethren: one.
  
And any moment may descend hot death
To shatter limbs! pulp, tear, blast
Beloved soldiers who love rough life and breath
Not less for dying faithful to the last.
  
O the fading eyes, the grimed face turned bony,
Oped mouth gushing, fallen head,
Lessening pressure of a hand shrunk, clammed, and stony!
O sudden spasm, release of the dead!
  
Was there love once? I have forgotten her.
Was there grief once? grief yet is mine.
O loved, living, dying, heroic soldier,
All, all, my joy, my grief, my love, are thine!
  
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

47 sec read
10

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABab cdcd efef ghgh ABab
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 847
Words 158
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols

Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols (6 September 1893 – 17 December 1944) was an English writer, known as a war poet of the First World War, and a playwright.  more…

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    "Fulfilment." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/56527/fulfilment.>.

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