Analysis of Short Shrift

Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant 1864 (Bridgwater, Somerset) – 1902 (Pretoria)



I can mind him at the start -
Easy seat and merry heart!
Said he, as he threw a glance
At the crawling ambulance:

'Some day I'll be on the ground
And the van will hurry round!
Doc. will gravely wag his head:
'No use now! the poor chap's dead!'

'Every man must, soon or late,
Turn up at the Golden Gate:
When we weigh in - you and I -
How can horsemen better die!'

On that sunlit steeple course
He lay prone beneath his horse,
Never more his pal may ride
By that gallant hlorseman's side.

'Reckless fool?' What matter, mate?
All his time he'd ridden straight -
Went (smashed 'gainst that wall of sod!)
Spurred and booted to his God.

Carve in stone above his head
Words that some old Christian said:
'Grace he sought, and grace he found,
'Twixt the saddle and the ground!'


Scheme AAXX BBCC DDEE FFGG DDHH CCBB
Poetic Form Quatrain  (83%)
Metre 1111101 1010101 1111101 1010100 1111101 0011101 1110111 1110111 10011111 1110101 1110101 1110101 111101 1110111 1011111 111011 1011101 1111101 1111111 1010111 1010111 1111101 1110111 1010001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 755
Words 155
Sentences 13
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 97
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

46 sec read
48

Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant

Harry "Breaker" Harbord Morant (born Edwin Henry Murrant, 9 December 1864 – 27 February 1902) was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, bush poet and military officer, who was convicted and executed for murder during the Second Anglo-Boer War. While serving with the Bushveldt Carbineers during the Second Anglo-Boer War, Lieutenant Morant was arrested and court-martialed for war crimes—one of the first such prosecutions in British military history. According to military prosecutors, Morant retaliated for the death in combat of his commanding officer with a series of revenge killings against both Boer POWs and many civilian residents of the Northern Transvaal. more…

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