The Send-off
Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their wayTo the siding-shed,And lined the train with faces grimly gay.
Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and sprayAs men's are, dead.
Dull porters watched them, and a casual trampStood staring hard,Sorry to miss them from the upland camp.Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lampWinked to the guard.
So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went.They were not ours:We never heard to which front these were sent.
Nor there if they yet mock what women meantWho gave them flowers.
Shall they return to beatings of great bellsIn wild trainloads?A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,May creep back, silent, to still village wellsUp half-known roads.
Words in this poem
- grimly a.
- Grim; hideous; stern.
- unmoved a.
- Not moved; fixed; firm; unshaken; calm; apathetic.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Send-off 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, The Send-off, in Poems (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1034, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/owen-poems/the-send-off.html, id L04671.
Form and metre
The Send-off is 20 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic 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 7.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 35% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 ABA wayA · shedB · gayA
- 2 AB sprayA · deadB
- 3 CDCCD trampC · hardD · campC · lampC · guardD
- 4 EFE wentE · oursF · sentE
- 5 EF meantE · flowersF
- 6 GHGGH bellsG · trainloadsH · yellsG · wellsG · roadsH
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To the siding-shed, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And lined the train with faces grimly gay. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray | 10 | ·········· |
| As men's are, dead. | 4 | ···· |
| Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Stood staring hard, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Sorry to miss them from the upland camp. | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp | 10 | ·˘//˘/˘··· |
| Winked to the guard. | 4 | ···· |
| So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went. | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| They were not ours: | 5 | ···/˘ |
| We never heard to which front these were sent. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Nor there if they yet mock what women meant | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Who gave them flowers. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Shall they return to beatings of great bells | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| In wild trainloads? | 4 | ···· |
| A few, a few, too few for drums and yells, | 10 | ·········· |
| May creep back, silent, to still village wells | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Up half-known roads. | 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.