Analysis of Walcheren Expedition
James Henry Leigh Hunt 1784 (Southgate, London) – 1859
Ye brave, enduring Englishmen,
Who dash through fire and flood,
And spend with equal thoughtlessness
Your money and your blood,
I sing of that black season,
Which all true hearts deplore,
When ye lay,
Night and day,
Upon Walcheren's swampy shore.
'Twas in the summer's sunshine
Your mighty host set sail,
With valour in each longing heart
And vigour in the gale;
The Frenchman dropp'd his laughter,
The Fleming's thoughts grew sore,
As ye came
In your fame
To the dark and swampy shore.
But foul delays encompass'd ye
More dang'rous than the foe,
As Antwerp's town and its guarded fleet
Too well for Britons know;
One spot alone ye conquer'd
With hosts unknown of yore;
And your might
Day and night,
Lay still on the swampy shore.
In vain your dauntless mariners
Mourn'd ev'ry moment lost,
In vain your soldiers threw their eyes
In flame to the hostile coast;
The fire of gallant aspects
Was doom'd to be no more,
And your fame
Sunk with shame
In the dark and the swampy shore.
Ye died not in the triumphing
Of the battle-shaken flood,
Ye died not on the charging field
In the mingle of brave blood;
But 'twas in wasting fevers
Full three months and more,
Britons born,
Pierc'd with scorn,
Lay at rot on the swampy shore.
No ship came o'er to bring relief,
No orders came to save;
But DEATH stood there and never stirr'd,
Still counting for the grave.
They lay down, and they linger'd,
And died with feelings sore,
And the waves
Pierc'd their graves
Thro' the dark and the swampy shore.
Oh England! Oh my Countrymen!
Ye ne'er shall thrive again,
Till freed from Councils obstinate
Of mercenary men.
So toll for the six thousand
Whose miseries are o'er,
Where the deep,
To their sleep,
Bemoans on the swampy shore.
Scheme | ABCBADEED XFXFGDHHD XIXIJDKKD CXCXCDHHD XBXBCDLLD XMJMJDCCD XNXNXGOOD |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010 1111001 011101 110011 1111110 111101 111 101 011101 100101 110111 1101101 01001 0101110 010111 111 011 1010101 11010101 11101 11101101 111101 1101110 110111 011 101 1110101 0111100 11101 01110111 0110101 0101101 111111 011 111 00100101 111001 1010101 11110101 0010111 1101010 11101 101 111 11110101 111101101 110111 11110101 110101 1110110 011101 001 111 10100101 11011100 111101 11110100 11001 1110110 1100110 101 111 0110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,673 |
Words | 308 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 63 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 192 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:37 min read
- 90 Views
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"Walcheren Expedition" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20133/walcheren-expedition>.
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