Casualty
AS with varnish red and glisteningDripped his hair; his feet looked rigid;Raised, he settled stiffly sideways:You could see his hurts were spinal.
He had fallen from an engine,And been dragged along the metals.It was hopeless, and they knew it;So they covered him, and left him.
As he lay, by fits half sentient,Inarticulately moaning,With his stockinged soles protrudedStark and awkward from the blankets,
To his bed there came a woman,Stood and looked and sighed a little,And departed without speaking,As himself a few hours after.
I was told it was his sweetheart.They were on the eve of marriage.She was quiet as a statue,But her lip was grey and writhen.
Words in this poem
- stiffly adv.
- In a stiff manner.
- inarticulately adv.
- In an inarticulate manner. Hammond.
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- writhen a.
- Having a twisted distorted from.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Casualty is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, Casualty, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/casualty.html, id L12334.
Form and metre
Casualty is 20 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 14 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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.
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| AS with varnish red and glistening | 9 | ··/˘··/˘˘ |
| Dripped his hair; his feet looked rigid; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Raised, he settled stiffly sideways: | 8 | ··/˘/˘/· |
| You could see his hurts were spinal. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| He had fallen from an engine, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And been dragged along the metals. | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| It was hopeless, and they knew it; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| So they covered him, and left him. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| As he lay, by fits half sentient, | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| Inarticulately moaning, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| With his stockinged soles protruded | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Stark and awkward from the blankets, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| To his bed there came a woman, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Stood and looked and sighed a little, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And departed without speaking, | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
| As himself a few hours after. | 8 | ·˘/··/·· |
| I was told it was his sweetheart. | 8 | ······/· |
| They were on the eve of marriage. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| She was quiet as a statue, | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| But her lip was grey and writhen. | 8 | ······/˘ |
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.