Analysis of Ensign Epps, The Color-Bearer
ENSIGN EPPS, at the battle of Flanders,
Sowed a seed of glory and duty
That flowers and flames in height and beauty
Like a crimson lily with heart of gold,
To-day, when the wars of Ghent are old
And buried as deep as their dead commanders.
Ensign Epps was the color-bearer,—
No matter on which side, Philip or Earl;
Their cause was the shell—his deed was the pearl.
Scarce more than a lad, he had been a sharer
That day in the wildest work of the field.
He was wounded and spent, and the fight was lost;
His comrades were slain, or a scattered host.
But stainless and scatheless, out of the strife,
He had carried his colors safer than life.
By the river's brink, without weapon or shield,
He faced the victors. The thick-heart mist
He dashed from his eyes, and the silk he kissed
Ere he held it aloft in the setting sun,
As proudly as if the fight were won,
And he smiled when they ordered him to yield.
Ensign Epps, with his broken blade,
Cut the silk from the gilded staff,
Which he poised like a spear till the charge was made,
And hurled at the leader with a laugh.
Then round his breast, like the scarf of his love,
He tied the colors his heart above,
And plunged in his armor into the tide.
And there, in his dress of honor, died.
Where are the lessons your kinglings teach?
And what is text of your proud commanders?
Out of the centuries, heroes reach
With the scroll of a deed, with the word of a story,
Of one man's truth and of all men's glory,
Like Ensign Epps at the battle of Flanders.
Scheme | ABBCCA DEEDFXX GGFHHIIF JKJKLLMM NANBBA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1011010110 101110010 1100101010 1010101111 111011111 01011111010 101101010 1101111011 1110111101 11101111010 1100101101 11100100111 110110101 110011101 11101101011 10101011011 110100111 1111100111 11110100101 110110101 0111110111 10111101 10110101 11110110111 011010101 1111101111 110101101 0101100101 010111101 11010111 0111111010 110100101 1011011011010 1111011110 11011010110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,477 |
Words | 290 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 7, 8, 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 232 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 91 Views
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"Ensign Epps, The Color-Bearer" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21997/ensign-epps%2C-the-color-bearer>.
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