Attack
At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dunIn the wild purple of the glowering sun,Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroudThe menacing scarred slope; and, one by one,Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire.The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowedWith bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,They leave their trenches, going over the top,While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,Flounders in mud. O Jesu, make it stop!
Words in this poem
- smouldering a.
- Being in a state of suppressed activity; quiet but not dead.
- topple v. i.
- To fall forward; to pitch or tumble down. [From Top summit.]
- barrage n.
- An artificial bar or obstruction placed in a river or water course to increase the depth of water; as, the barrages of the Nile. [F., fr. barrer to bar, from barre bar.]
- furtive a.
- Stolen; obtained or characterized by stealth; sly; secret; stealthy; as, a furtive look. Prior. [L. furtivus, fr. furtum theft, fr. fur thief, akin to ferre to bear: cf. F. furtif. See Fertile.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Attack is in the public domain. This text is taken from Counter-Attack and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8930; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Siegfried Sassoon, Attack, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8930, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-counter-attack/attack.html, id L04692.
Form and metre
Attack is 13 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes AABACBDCDEFFE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 23% 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 AABACBDCDEFFE dunA · sunA · shroudB · oneA · wireC · bowedB · gearD · fireC · fearD · topE · wristsF · fistsF · stopE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| In the wild purple of the glowering sun, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| The menacing scarred slope; and, one by one, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire. | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed | 10 | ·˘/····/˘· |
| With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear, | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘· |
| Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire. | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘/ |
| Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| They leave their trenches, going over the top, | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Flounders in mud. O Jesu, make it stop! | 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.