Analysis of Isandlwana
John Alexander McCrae 1872 – 1918
Scarlet coats, and crash o' the band,
The grey of a pauper's gown,
A soldier's grave in Zululand,
And a woman in Brecon Town.
My little lad for a soldier boy,
(Mothers o' Brecon Town!)
My eyes for tears and his for joy
When he went from Brecon Town,
His for the flags and the gallant sights
His for the medals and his for the fights,
And mine for the dreary, rainy nights
At home in Brecon Town.
They say he's laid beneath a tree,
(Come back to Brecon Town!)
Shouldn't I know? -- I was there to see:
(It's far to Brecon Town!)
It's me that keeps it trim and drest
With a briar there and a rose by his breast --
The English flowers he likes the best
That I bring from Brecon Town.
And I sit beside him -- him and me,
(We're back to Brecon Town.)
To talk of the things that used to be
(Grey ghosts of Brecon Town);
I know the look o' the land and sky,
And the bird that builds in the tree near by,
And times I hear the jackals cry,
And me in Brecon Town.
Golden grey on miles of sand
The dawn comes creeping down;
It's day in far off Zululand
And night in Brecon Town.
Scheme | ABAB CBCBDDDB EBEBAFFB EBEBGGGB ABAB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10101101 011011 010101 0010011 110110101 10111 11110111 111111 110100101 1101001101 011010101 11011 11110101 11111 101111111 11111 11111101 10101001111 010101101 111111 011011101 11111 111011111 11111 110110101 0011100111 0111011 01011 1011111 011101 110111 01011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,050 |
Words | 225 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 159 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:09 min read
- 1 View
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"Isandlwana" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55818/isandlwana>.
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