Died of Wounds
His wet, white face and miserable eyesBrought nurses to him more than groans and sighs:But hoarse and low and rapid rose and fellHis troubled voice: he did the business well.
The ward grew dark; but he was still complaining,And calling out for "Dickie." "Curse the Wood!"It's time to go; O Christ, and what's the good?--We'll never take it; and it's always raining."
I wondered where he'd been; then heard him shout,"They snipe like hell! O Dickie, don't go out" ...I fell asleep ... next morning he was dead;And some Slight Wound lay smiling on his bed.
Words in this poem
- wondered a.
- Having performed wonders; able to perform wonderful things.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Died of Wounds 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, Died of Wounds, in The War Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45199, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-war-poems/died-of-wounds.html, id L17244.
Form and metre
Died of Wounds is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% 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. 17% 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 AABB eyesA · sighsA · fellB · wellB
- 2 ABBA complainingA · woodB · goodB · rainingA
- 3 AABB shoutA · outA · deadB · bedB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| His wet, white face and miserable eyes | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘· |
| Brought nurses to him more than groans and sighs: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But hoarse and low and rapid rose and fell | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| His troubled voice: he did the business well. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The ward grew dark; but he was still complaining, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| And calling out for "Dickie." "Curse the Wood! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| "It's time to go; O Christ, and what's the good?-- | 10 | ·········· |
| We'll never take it; and it's always raining." | 11 | ·/˘····/·/˘ |
| I wondered where he'd been; then heard him shout, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| "They snipe like hell! O Dickie, don't go out" ... | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I fell asleep ... next morning he was dead; | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| And some Slight Wound lay smiling on his bed. | 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.