Memorial Tablet (Great War)
Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight(Under Lord Derby's scheme). I died in hell--(They called it Passchendaele); my wound was slight,And I was hobbling back, and then a shellBurst slick upon the duck-boards; so I fellInto the bottomless mud, and lost the light.
In sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew,He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare;For though low down upon the list, I'm there:"In proud and glorious memory"--that's my due.Two bleeding years I fought in France for Squire;I suffered anguish that he's never guessed;Once I came home on leave; and then went west.What greater glory could a man desire?
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- slick v. t.
- To make sleek or smoth.
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Memorial Tablet (Great War) 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, Memorial Tablet (Great War), in The War Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #45199, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-war-poems/memorial-tablet-great-war.html, id L17277.
Form and metre
Memorial Tablet (Great War) is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 ABABBA fightA · hellB · slightA · shellB · fellB · lightA
- 2 ABBA-CC- pewA · stareB · thereB · dueA · squire · guessedC · westC · desire
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| (Under Lord Derby's scheme). I died in hell-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| (They called it Passchendaele); my wound was slight, | 11 | ··········· |
| And I was hobbling back, and then a shell | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Burst slick upon the duck-boards; so I fell | 10 | ·········· |
| Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| For though low down upon the list, I'm there: | 10 | ·········· |
| "In proud and glorious memory"--that's my due. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Two bleeding years I fought in France for Squire; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I suffered anguish that he's never guessed; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Once I came home on leave; and then went west. | 10 | ·········· |
| What greater glory could a man desire? | 11 | ·/˘/˘···˘/˘ |
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.