Batallion Relief
"Fall in! Now, get a move on!" (Curse the rain.)We splash away along the straggling village,Out to the flat rich country green with June ...And sunset flares across wet crops and tillage,Blazing with splendour-patches. Harvest soonUp in the Line. "Perhaps the War 'll be doneBy Christmas-time. Keep smiling then, old son!"
Here's the Canal: it's dusk; we cross the bridge."Lead on there by platoons." The Line's a-glareWith shell-fire through the poplars; distant rattleOf rifles and machine-guns. "Fritz is there!Christ, ain't it lively, Sergeant? Is't a battle?"More rain: the lightning blinks, and thunder rumbles."There's overhead artillery," some chap grumbles.
"What's all this mob, by the cross-road?" (The guides) ..."Lead on with Number One." (And off they go.)"Three-minute intervals." ... Poor blundering files,Sweating and blindly burdened; who's to knowIf death will catch them in those two dark miles?(More rain.) "Lead on, Headquarters."(That's the lot.)"Who's that? O, Sergeant-major; don't get shot!And tell me, have we won this war or not?"
Words in this poem
- straggling a.
- from Straggle, v.
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- artillery n.
- Munitions of war; implements for warfare, as slings, bows, and arrows. [OE. artilrie, OF. artillerie, arteillerie, fr. LL. artillaria, artilleria, machines and apparatus of all kinds used in war, vans laden with arms of any kind whi]
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Batallion Relief is in the public domain. This text is taken from The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon, Project Gutenberg ebook #45199; 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, Batallion Relief, in The War Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45199, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-war-poems/batallion-relief.html, id L17234.
Form and metre
Batallion Relief is 23 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% 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 -ABABCC rain · villageA · juneB · tillageA · soonB · doneC · sonC
- 2 -ABABCC bridge · glareA · rattleB · thereA · battleB · rumblesC · grumblesC
- 3 -ABAB-CCC guides · goA · filesB · knowA · milesB · headquarters · lotC · shotC · notC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "Fall in! Now, get a move on!" (Curse the rain.) | 10 | ·········· |
| We splash away along the straggling village, | 11 | ··˘/˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Out to the flat rich country green with June ... | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And sunset flares across wet crops and tillage, | 11 | ·/··˘/···/˘ |
| Blazing with splendour-patches. Harvest soon | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Up in the Line. "Perhaps the War 'll be done | 11 | ····˘/····· |
| By Christmas-time. Keep smiling then, old son!" | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Here's the Canal: it's dusk; we cross the bridge. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| "Lead on there by platoons." The Line's a-glare | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| With shell-fire through the poplars; distant rattle | 11 | ··/··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Of rifles and machine-guns. "Fritz is there! | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Christ, ain't it lively, Sergeant? Is't a battle?" | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| More rain: the lightning blinks, and thunder rumbles. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| "There's overhead artillery," some chap grumbles. | 11 | ·/˘/˘/˘··/˘ |
| "What's all this mob, by the cross-road?" (The guides) ... | 10 | ·········· |
| "Lead on with Number One." (And off they go.) | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| "Three-minute intervals." ... Poor blundering files, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| Sweating and blindly burdened; who's to know | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| If death will catch them in those two dark miles? | 10 | ·········· |
| (More rain.) "Lead on, Headquarters." | 7 | ····/·˘ |
| (That's the lot.) | 3 | ··· |
| "Who's that? O, Sergeant-major; don't get shot! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And tell me, have we won this war or not?" | 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.