Analysis of It's A Queer Time
Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)
It's hard to know if you're alive or dead
When steel and fire go roaring through your head.
One moment you'll be crouching at your gun
Traversing, mowing heaps down half in fun:
The next, you choke and clutch at your right breast -
No time to think - leave all - and off you go…
To Treasure Island where the Spice winds blow,
To lovely groves of mango, quince and lime -
Breathe no good-bye, but ho, for the Red West!
It's a queer time.
You're charging madly at them yelling 'Fag!'
When somehow something gives and your feet drag.
You fall and strike your head; yet feel no pain
And find… you're digging tunnels through the hay
In the Big Barn, 'cause it's a rainy day.
Oh, springy hay, and lovely beams to climb!
You're back in the old sailor suit again.
It's a queer time.
Or you'll be dozing safe in your dug-out -
A great roar-the trench shakes and falls about
You're struggling, gasping, struggling, then… hullo!
Elsie comes tripping gaily down the trench,
Hanky to nose-that lyddite makes a stench -
Getting her pinafore all over grime.
Funny! because she died ten years ago!
It's a queer time.
The trouble is, things happen much too quick;
Up jump the Boches, rifles thump and click,
You stagger, and the whole scene fades away:
Even good Christians don't like passing straight
From Tipperary or their Hymn of Hate
To Alleluiah-chanting, and the chime
Of golden harps… and… I'm not well to-day…
It's a queer time.
Scheme | aa bbcddecE ffxggexE hhxiiedE jjgkkegE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110111 11010110111 1101110111 0101011101 0111011111 1111110111 1101010111 1101110101 1111111011 1011 1101011101 111010111 1101111111 0111010101 0011110101 111010111 1100110101 1011 1111010111 0110110101 11001010011 1011010101 101111101 10011101 1001111101 1011 0101110111 1101010101 1100011101 1011011101 110011111 1110001 1101011111 1011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,440 |
Words | 261 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 218 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 150 Views
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"It's A Queer Time" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31136/it%27s-a-queer-time>.
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