Mental Cases
Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows,Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish,Baring teeth that leer like skulls' tongues wicked?Stroke on stroke of pain,--but what slow panic,Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?Ever from their hair and through their hand palmsMisery swelters. Surely we have perishedSleeping, and walk hell; but who these hellish?
--These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished.Memory fingers in their hair of murders,Multitudinous murders they once witnessed.Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander,Treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter.Always they must see these things and hear them,Batter of guns and shatter of flying muscles,Carnage incomparable and human squanderRucked too thick for these men's extrication.
Therefore still their eyeballs shrink tormentedBack into their brains, because on their senseSunlight seems a bloodsmear; night comes blood-black;Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh--Thus their heads wear this hilarious, hideous,Awful falseness of set-smiling corpses.--Thus their hands are plucking at each other;Picking at the rope-knouts of their scourging;Snatching after us who smote them, brother,Pawing us who dealt them war and madness.
Words in this poem
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- purgatorial a.
- Of or pertaining to purgatory; expiatory.
- multitudinous a.
- Consisting of a multitude; manifold in number or condition; as, multitudinous waves.
- carnage n.
- Flesh of slain animals or men. [F. carnage, LL. carnaticum tribute of animals, flesh of animals, fr. L. caro, carnis, flesh. See Carnal.]
- incomparable a.
- Not comparable; admitting of no comparison with others; unapproachably eminent; without a peer or equal; matchless; peerless; transcendent. [L. incomparabilis: cf. F. incomparable. See In- not, and Comparable.]
- extrication n.
- The act or process of extricating or disentangling; a freeing from perplexities; disentanglement.
- afresh adv.
- Anew; again; once more; newly. [Pref. a- + fresh.]
- hilarious a.
- Mirthful; noisy; merry.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mental Cases is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1034; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Wilfred Owen, Mental Cases, in Poems (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1034, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/owen-poems/mental-cases.html, id L04667.
Form and metre
Mental Cases is 28 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 20 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic pentameter.
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 --A-----A twilight · shadows · relishA · wicked · panic · sockets · palms · perished · hellishA
- 2 ---A---A- ravished · murders · witnessed · wanderA · laughter · them · muscles · squanderA · extrication
- 3 ------A-A- tormented · sense · black · afresh · hideous · corpses · otherA · scourging · brotherA · madness
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight? | 10 | ········/· |
| Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows, | 10 | /˘······/· |
| Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish, | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
| Baring teeth that leer like skulls' tongues wicked? | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
| Stroke on stroke of pain,--but what slow panic, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets? | 10 | ··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Ever from their hair and through their hand palms | 10 | /˘········ |
| Misery swelters. Surely we have perished | 11 | /˘˘/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Sleeping, and walk hell; but who these hellish? | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
| --These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished. | 10 | ·········· |
| Memory fingers in their hair of murders, | 11 | /˘˘/˘····/˘ |
| Multitudinous murders they once witnessed. | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander, | 10 | /˘····/˘/˘ |
| Treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter. | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
| Always they must see these things and hear them, | 10 | /········· |
| Batter of guns and shatter of flying muscles, | 12 | /˘···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Carnage incomparable and human squander | 11 | /˘˘/˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| Rucked too thick for these men's extrication. | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Therefore still their eyeballs shrink tormented | 10 | ····/··/·˘ |
| Back into their brains, because on their sense | 10 | ·········· |
| Sunlight seems a bloodsmear; night comes blood-black; | 10 | /········· |
| Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh | 11 | ··/˘·····˘/ |
| --Thus their heads wear this hilarious, hideous, | 11 | ·····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Awful falseness of set-smiling corpses. | 10 | /˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| --Thus their hands are plucking at each other; | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Picking at the rope-knouts of their scourging; | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
| Snatching after us who smote them, brother, | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
| Pawing us who dealt them war and madness. | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
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.