Fight to a Finish
The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying,And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit streetTo cheer the soldiers who'd refrained from dying,And hear the music of returning feet.Of all the thrills and ardours War has brought,This moment is the finest." (So they thought.)
Snapping their bayonets on to charge the mob,Grim Fusiliers broke ranks with glint of steel.At last the boys had found a cushy job.I heard the Yellow-Pressmen grunt and squeal;And with my trusty bombers turned and wentTo clear those Junkers out of Parliament.
Words in this poem
- sunlit a.
- Lighted by the sun.
- snapping
- a. & n. from Snap, v. Snapping beetle. (Zoöl.) See Snap beetle, under Snap.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- glint n.
- A glimpse, glance, or gleam. [OE. glent.]
- squeal v. i.
- To cry with a sharp, shrill, prolonged sound, as certain animals do, indicating want, displeasure, or pain. [Of Scand. origin; cf. Sw. sqväla, Norw. skvella. Cf. Squeak, Squall.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- parliament n.
- A parleying; a discussion; a conference. [OE. parlement, F. parlement, fr. parler to speak; cf. LL. parlamentum, parliamentum. See Parley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fight to a Finish 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, Fight to a Finish, in The War Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45199, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-war-poems/fight-to-a-finish.html, id L17250.
Form and metre
Fight to a Finish is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 3 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 ABABCC flyingA · streetB · dyingA · feetB · broughtC · thoughtC
- 2 ABABCC mobA · steelB · jobA · squealB · wentC · parliamentC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit street | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| To cheer the soldiers who'd refrained from dying, | 11 | ···/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| And hear the music of returning feet. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Of all the thrills and ardours War has brought, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| This moment is the finest." (So they thought.) | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Snapping their bayonets on to charge the mob, | 11 | /˘·/˘······ |
| Grim Fusiliers broke ranks with glint of steel. | 10 | ·········· |
| At last the boys had found a cushy job. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I heard the Yellow-Pressmen grunt and squeal; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And with my trusty bombers turned and went | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To clear those Junkers out of Parliament. | 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.