Their Frailty
He's got a Blighty wound. He's safe; and thenWar's fine and bold and bright.She can forget the doomed and prisoned menWho agonize and fight.
He's back in France. She loathes the listless strainAnd peril of his plight.Beseeching Heaven to send him home again,She prays for peace each night.
Husbands and sons and lovers; everywhereThey die; War bleeds us white.Mothers and wives and sweethearts,--they don't careSo long as He's all right.
Words in this poem
- agonize v. i.
- To writhe with agony; to suffer violent anguish. [F. agoniser, LL. agonizare, fr. Gr. Agony.]
- listless a.
- Having no desire or inclination; indifferent; heedless; spiritless. [OE. listles, lustles. See Lust.]
- plight v. t.
- To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait. [OE. pliten; probably through Old French, fr. LL. plectare, L. plectere. See Plait, Ply.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Their Frailty 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, Their Frailty, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8930, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-counter-attack/their-frailty.html, id L04705.
Form and metre
Their Frailty is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 42% 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 ABAB thenA · brightB · menA · fightB
- 2 ABAB strainA · plightB · againA · nightB
- 3 ABAB everywhereA · whiteB · careA · rightB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| He's got a Blighty wound. He's safe; and then | 10 | ·········· |
| War's fine and bold and bright. | 6 | ······ |
| She can forget the doomed and prisoned men | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Who agonize and fight. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| He's back in France. She loathes the listless strain | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And peril of his plight. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Beseeching Heaven to send him home again, | 10 | ˘/˘/····˘/ |
| She prays for peace each night. | 6 | ······ |
| Husbands and sons and lovers; everywhere | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| They die; War bleeds us white. | 6 | ······ |
| Mothers and wives and sweethearts,--they don't care | 10 | /˘···/···· |
| So long as He's all right. | 6 | ······ |
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.