Analysis of Then and Now
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
When battles were fought
With a chivalrous sense of should and ought,
In spirit men said,
"End we quick or dead,
Honour is some reward!
Let us fight fair -- for our own best or worst;
So, Gentlemen of the Guard,
Fire first!"
In the open they stood,
Man to man in his knightlihood:
They would not deign
To profit by a stain
On the honourable rules,
Knowing that practise perfidy no man durst
Who in the heroic schools
Was nurst.
But now, behold, what
Is war with those where honour is not!
Rama laments
Its dead innocents;
Herod howls: "Sly slaughter
Rules now! Let us, by modes once called accurst,
Overhead, under water,
Stab first."
Scheme | AABBXCXC XADDECEA XXXXFAFC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001 10111101 01011 11111 11101 11111101111 1100101 101 001011 111011 1111 110101 1011 1011100111 1000101 11 11011 11111111 1001 11100 101110 111111111 1011010 11 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 642 |
Words | 120 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 163 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 134 Views
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"Then and Now" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/36592/then-and-now>.
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