Wirers
"Pass it along, the wiring party's going out"--And yawning sentries mumble, "Wirers going out,"Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled thud,They toil with stealthy haste and anger in their blood.
The Boche sends up a flare. Black forms stand rigid there,Stock-still like posts; then darkness, and the clumsy ghostsStride hither and thither, whispering, tripped by clutching snareOf snags and tangles.Ghastly dawn with vaporous coastsGleams desolate along the sky, night's misery ended.
Young Hughes was badly hit; I heard him carried away,Moaning at every lurch; no doubt he'll die to-day.But we can say the front-line wire's been safely mended.
Words in this poem
- wiring n.
- The act of one that wires anything.
- mumble v. t.
- To speak with the lips partly closed, so as to render the sounds inarticulate and imperfect; to utter words in a grumbling indistinct manner, indicating discontent or displeasure; to mutter. [OE. momelen; cf. D. mompelen, mommelen, G. mummelen, Sw. mumla, Dan. mumle. Cf. Mum, a., Mumm, Mump, v.]
- flare v. i.
- To burn with an unsteady or waving flame; as, the candle flares. [Cf. Norw. flara to blaze, flame, adorn with tinsel, dial. Sw. flasa upp, and E. flash, or flacker.]
- clumsy a.
- Stiff or benumbed, as with cold. [OE. clumsed benumbed, fr. clumsen to be benumbed; cf. Icel. klumsa lockjaw, dial. Sw. klummsen benumbed with cold. Cf. 1st Clam, and 1st Clamp.]
- stride v. t.
- To walk with long steps, especially in a measured or pompous manner. [AS. stridan to stride, to strive; akin to LG. striden, OFries. strida to strive, D. strijden to strive, to contend, G. streiten, OHG. stritan; of uncertain orig]
- lurch v. t.
- To leave in the lurch; to cheat.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wirers 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, Wirers, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8930, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-counter-attack/wirers.html, id L04691.
Form and metre
Wirers is 13 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.2 syllables. 3 lines end 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 hexameter.
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 AABB outA · outA · thudB · bloodB
- 2 ABA-B- thereA · ghostsB · snareA · tangles · coastsB · ended
- 3 AA- awayA · dayA · mended
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Pass it along, the wiring party's going out"-- | 11 | ··˘/·/˘/˘/· |
| And yawning sentries mumble, "Wirers going out," | 11 | ·/˘/˘/˘··/· |
| Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled thud, | 12 | ˘/˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| They toil with stealthy haste and anger in their blood. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘··· |
| The Boche sends up a flare. Black forms stand rigid there, | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Stock-still like posts; then darkness, and the clumsy ghosts | 12 | ·····/˘··/˘· |
| Stride hither and thither, whispering, tripped by clutching snare | 13 | ·/˘·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of snags and tangles. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Ghastly dawn with vaporous coasts | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| Gleams desolate along the sky, night's misery ended. | 12 | ·/˘˘/···/˘/˘ |
| Young Hughes was badly hit; I heard him carried away, | 13 | ···/˘····/˘˘/ |
| Moaning at every lurch; no doubt he'll die to-day. | 12 | /˘·/˘······· |
| But we can say the front-line wire's been safely mended. | 13 | ·······/·/˘/˘ |
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.