Analysis of The Rear-Guard
Siegfried Sassoon 1886 (Matfield) – 1967 (Heytesbury)
Groping along the tunnel, step by step,
He winked his prying torch with patching glare
From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air.
Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know,
A mirror smashed, the mattress from a bed;
And he, exploring fifty feet below
The rosy gloom of battle overhead.
Tripping, he grapped the wall; saw someone lie
Humped at his feet, half-hidden by a rug,
And stooped to give the sleeper's arm a tug.
"I'm looking for headquarters." No reply.
"God blast your neck!" (For days he'd had no sleep.)
"Get up and guide me through this stinking place."
Savage, he kicked a soft, unanswering heap,
And flashed his beam across the livid face
Terribly glaring up, whose eyes yet wore
Agony dying hard ten days before;
And fists of fingers clutched a blackening wound.
Alone he staggered on until he found
Dawn's ghost that filtered down a shafted stair
To the dazed, muttering creatures underground
Who hear the boom of shells in muffled sound.
At last, with sweat of horror in his hair,
He climbed through darkness to the twilight air,
Unloading hell behind him step by step.
Scheme | ABB CDCDEFFEGHGHIIJJBJJBBA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1001010111 1111011101 111101011 1101011111 0101010101 0101010101 0101110101 101101111 1111110101 011101101 110110101 1111111111 1101111101 10110111 0111010101 1001011111 1001011101 01110101001 0111010111 1111010101 1011001010 1101110101 1111110011 111101011 0101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,107 |
Words | 198 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 22 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 431 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 96 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 59 sec read
- 94 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Rear-Guard" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34959/the-rear-guard>.
Discuss this Siegfried Sassoon poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In