Remorse
Lost in the swamp and welter of the pit,He flounders off the duck-boards; only he knowsEach flash, and spouting crash,--each instant litWhen gloom reveals the streaming rain. He goesHeavily, blindly on. And, while he blunders,"Could anything be worse than this!"--he wonders,Remembering how he saw those Germans run,Screaming for mercy among the stumps of trees:Green-faced, they dodged and darted: there was oneLivid with terror, clutching at his knees...Our chaps were sticking 'em like pigs... "O hell!"He thought--"there's things in war one dare not tellPoor father sitting safe at home, who readsOf dying heroes and their deathless deeds."
Words in this poem
- welter v. i.
- To roll, as the body of an animal; to tumble about, especially in anything foul or defiling; to wallow. [Freq. of OE. walten to roll over, AS. wealtan; akin to LG. weltern, G. walzen to roll, to waltz, sich wälzen to welter, OHG. walzan to roll, Icel. velta, Dan. v]
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- screaming a.
- Uttering screams; shrieking.
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Remorse 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, Remorse, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8930, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-counter-attack/remorse.html, id L04721.
Form and metre
Remorse is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCCDEDEFFGG. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% 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 ABABCCDEDEFFGG pitA · knowsB · litA · goesB · blundersC · wondersC · runD · treesE · oneD · kneesE · hellF · tellF · readsG · deedsG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lost in the swamp and welter of the pit, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| He flounders off the duck-boards; only he knows | 10 | ·/····/˘·· |
| Each flash, and spouting crash,--each instant lit | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| When gloom reveals the streaming rain. He goes | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Heavily, blindly on. And, while he blunders, | 11 | /˘˘/˘····/˘ |
| "Could anything be worse than this!"--he wonders, | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Remembering how he saw those Germans run, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| Screaming for mercy among the stumps of trees: | 11 | /˘·/˘······ |
| Green-faced, they dodged and darted: there was one | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Livid with terror, clutching at his knees... | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Our chaps were sticking 'em like pigs... "O hell!" | 10 | /··/˘····· |
| He thought--"there's things in war one dare not tell | 10 | ·········· |
| Poor father sitting safe at home, who reads | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Of dying heroes and their deathless deeds." | 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.