Two Fusiliers
And have we done with War at last?Well, we've been lucky devils both,And there's no need of pledge or oathTo bind our lovely friendship fast,By firmer stuffClose bound enough.
By wire and wood and stake we're bound,By Fricourt and by Festubert,By whipping rain, by the sun's glare,By all the misery and loud sound,By a Spring day,By Picard clay.
Show me the two so closely boundAs we, by the red bond of blood,By friendship, blossoming from mud,By Death: we faced him, and we foundBeauty in Death,In dead men breath.
Words in this poem
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- picard n.
- One of a sect of Adamites in the fifteenth century; -- so called from one Picard of Flanders. See Adamite.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Two Fusiliers is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fairies and Fusiliers, Project Gutenberg ebook #10122; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Graves, Two Fusiliers, in Fairies and Fusiliers (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10122, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graves-fairies/two-fusiliers.html, id L02413.
Form and metre
Two Fusiliers is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBACC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBACC lastA · bothB · oathB · fastA · stuffC · enoughC
- 2 A--ABB boundA · festubert · glare · soundA · dayB · clayB
- 3 ABBACC boundA · bloodB · mudB · foundA · deathC · breathC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| And have we done with War at last? | 8 | ········ |
| Well, we've been lucky devils both, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And there's no need of pledge or oath | 8 | ········ |
| To bind our lovely friendship fast, | 8 | ··//˘/˘· |
| By firmer stuff | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Close bound enough. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| By wire and wood and stake we're bound, | 8 | ·/······ |
| By Fricourt and by Festubert, | 8 | ········ |
| By whipping rain, by the sun's glare, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| By all the misery and loud sound, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| By a Spring day, | 4 | ···· |
| By Picard clay. | 4 | ·˘/· |
| Show me the two so closely bound | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As we, by the red bond of blood, | 8 | ········ |
| By friendship, blossoming from mud, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| By Death: we faced him, and we found | 8 | ········ |
| Beauty in Death, | 4 | /˘·· |
| In dead men breath. | 4 | ···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.