Formal Description of "Burial of Sir John Moore"
Meter and Rhyme
“Burial of Sir John Moore,” by Charles Wolfe, is a memoir of a fallen British General. In this piece, we see four lines per stanza, and eight stanzas in the entire poem. Poems usually consist of a rhythm of stresses; however, this poem does not follow a singular stress pattern. Much of this poem is anapestic, in that the lines start with two light stresses followed by a heavy stress. For example, the poem goes, “And the grave where a Briton has laid him,” follows the heavy, light, light stress pattern of an anapestic rhythm.
However, Wolfe writes a few exceptions where lines contain trochees, iambs, and dactyls. Examples include, “Few and short were the prayers we said,” which begins trochaic, continues dactylic, and finishes again trochaic; and “As his corse to the rampart we hurried,” which begins anapestic and finishes iambic.
Stresses also help determine whether a rhyme is masculine or feminine. Feminine rhymes end on a light stress, while masculine rhymes end on a heavy stress. The rhyme scheme of this poem is a quatrain of abab, cdcd, etc. Without exception, every second and fourth lines contains a feminine rhyme, and every first and third line contains a masculine rhyme. There are only a couple examples of slant rhyme in “note,” and “shot,” in the first stanza, and “down,” and “stone,” in the last stanza.
Metrical Form
While the metrical feet are somewhat discrepant, the entire poem is consistently in tetrameter in the first and third lines of each stanza, and in trimeter in the second and fourth lines. In other words, this poem is a ballad. Ballads, also called hymns, were mainly created as oral poetry meant to be sung.
This poem does not consist of any enjambments, but completes each thought within each line, punctuation included. In fact, there are 27 end-stopped lines out of the 32 lines. The last five lines that were not included still complete a thought, they are just without punctuation.
Sound
There are many sound characteristics in this poem. In the third lines of the first stanza is the line, “Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot,” and alliteration is present in the repeated “s” sound. More examples of alliteration are found in this ballad. Wolfe writes words such as, “darkly,” and “dead” together in line 5; “moonbeams’,” and “misty” in line 7; “warrior” and “rest” in line 11; and these are just a few examples.
Overall, this ballad follows a strict form that helps the reader expect what is next. The rhythm moves the reader along on a journey that is supported by alliteration, and the rhyme adds to the flow that gives the poem a sense of completeness.