Analysis of The Oldest Drama
John McCrae 1872 (Guelph) – 1918 (Boulogne-sur-Mer)
"It fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.
And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad,
Carry him to his mother. And . . . he sat on her knees till noon,
and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed. . . .
And shut the door upon him and went out."
Immortal story that no mother's heart
Ev'n yet can read, nor feel the biting pain
That rent her soul! Immortal not by art
Which makes a long past sorrow sting again
Like grief of yesterday: but since it said
In simplest word the truth which all may see,
Where any mother sobs above her dead
And plays anew the silent tragedy.
Scheme | AXXBX CXCX BABX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110111111110101 011101101111011101 101111001110111 0110111011101 0101011011 0101011101 11111110101 1101010111 1101110101 111101111 0101011111 1101010101 0101010100 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 656 |
Words | 130 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 13 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 157 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 91 Views
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"The Oldest Drama" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23780/the-oldest-drama>.
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