Analysis of The Day's March
The battery grides and jingles,
Mile succeeds to mile;
Shaking the noonday sunshine
The guns lunge out awhile,
And then are still awhile.
We amble along the highway;
The reeking, powdery dust
Ascends and cakes our faces
With a striped, sweaty crust.
Under the still sky's violet
The heat throbs on the air….
The white road's dusty radiance
Assumes a dark glare.
With a head hot and heavy,
And eyes that cannot rest,
And a black heart burning
In a stifled breast,
I sit in the saddle,
I feel the road unroll,
And keep my senses straightened
Toward to-morrow's goal.
There, over unknown meadows
Which we must reach at last,
Day and night thunders
A black and chilly blast.
Heads forget heaviness,
Hearts forget spleen,
For by that mighty winnowing
Being is blown clean.
Light in the eyes again,
Strength in the hand,
A spirit dares, dies, forgives,
And can understand!
And, best! Love comes back again
After grief and shame,
And along the wind of death
Throws a clean flame.
The battery grides and jingles,
Mile succeeds to mile;
Suddenly battering the silence
The guns burst out awhile….
I lift my head and smile.
Scheme | ABxbb xcxc xded xfgf xbxx xhxh aigi jkxk jlxl ABeb b |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01001010 10111 10011 011101 011101 1100101 0101001 01011010 101101 10011100 011101 01110100 01011 1011010 011101 001110 00101 110010 11011 0111010 01111 110011 111111 10110 010101 1011 1011 1111010 10111 100101 1001 0101101 0101 0111101 10101 0010111 1011 01001010 10111 100100010 011101 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,083 |
Words | 197 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 80 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 34 Views
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"The Day's March" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31775/the-day%27s-march>.
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