Old Soldier
Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)
WE wander now who marched before,
Hawking our bran from door to door,
While other men from the mill take their flour:
So it is to be an Old Soldier.
Old, bare and sore, we look on the hound
Turning upon the stiff frozen ground,
Nosing the mould, with the night around:
So it is to be an Old Soldier.
And we who once rang out like a bell,
Have nothing now to show or to sell;
Old bones to carry, old stories to tell:
So it is to be an Old Soldier.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 28 sec read
- 391 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | aabB cccB dddB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 443 |
Words | 95 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
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"Old Soldier" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/28486/old-soldier>.
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