Analysis of The Song of the Ungirt Runners

Charles Hamilton Sorley 1895 (Aberdeen) – 1915 (Hulluch, Lens)



We swing ungirded hips,
And lightened are our eyes,
The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
We know not whom we trust
Nor whitherward we fare,
But we run because we must
Through the great wide air.

The waters of the seas
Are troubled as by storm.
The tempest strips the trees
And does not leave them warm.
Does the tearing tempest pause?
Do the tree-tops ask it why?
So we run without a cause
'Neath the big bare sky.

The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
But the storm the water whips
And the wave howls to the skies.
The winds arise and strike it
And scatter it like sand,
And we run because we like it
Through the broad bright land.


Scheme abABcdcd efefxgxg ABabhihi
Poetic Form
Metre 1111 0101101 0111101 111111 111111 1111 1110111 10111 010101 110111 010101 011111 1010101 1011111 1110101 10111 0111101 111111 1010101 0011101 0101011 010111 01101111 10111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 642
Words 135
Sentences 11
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 169
Words per stanza (avg) 44
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
24

Charles Hamilton Sorley

Captain Charles Hamilton Sorley was a British Army officer and Scottish war poet who fought in the First World War, in which he was killed in action during the Battle of Loos in October 1915. more…

All Charles Hamilton Sorley poems | Charles Hamilton Sorley Books

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