Movement Of Bodies Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCABD EFGHIJ KLLLMN NONNMP OQBRST UMVMAN IWHWXY LZA2NYV MB2YHC2D2 MAYXNE2 MXKYMF2 G2LH2I2OJ2 NK2L2C2MNThose of you that have got through the rest I am going to rapidly | A |
Devote a little time to showing you those that can master it | B |
A few ideas about tactics which must not be confused | C |
With what we call strategy Tactics is merely | A |
The mechanical movement of bodies and that is what we mean by it | B |
Or perhaps I should say by them | D |
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Strategy to be quite frank you will have no hand in | E |
It is done by those up above and it merely refers to | F |
The larger movements over which we have no control | G |
But tactics are also important together or single | H |
You must never forget that suddenly in an engagement | I |
You may find yourself alone | J |
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This brown clay model is a characteristic terrain | K |
Of a simple and typical kind Its general character | L |
Should be taken in at a glance and its general character | L |
You can see at a glance it is somewhat hilly by nature | L |
With a fair amount of typical vegetation | M |
Disposed at certain parts | N |
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Here at the top of the tray which we might call the northwards | N |
Is a wooded headland with a crown of bushy topped trees on | O |
And proceeding downwards or south we take in at a glance | N |
A variety of gorges and knolls and plateaus and basins and saddles | N |
Somewhat symmetrically put for easy identification | M |
And here is our point of attack | P |
- | |
But remember of course it will not be a tray you will fight on | O |
Nor always by daylight After a hot day think of the night | Q |
Cooling the desert down and you still moving over it | B |
Past a ruined tank or a gun perhaps or a dead friend | R |
In the midst of war at peace It might quite well be that | S |
It isn't always a tray | T |
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And even this tray is different to what I had thought | U |
These models are somehow never always the same for a reason | M |
I do not know how to explain quite Just as I do not know | V |
Why there is always someone at this particular lesson | M |
Who always starts crying Now will you kindly | A |
Empty those blinking eyes | N |
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I thank you I have no wish to seem impatient | I |
I know it is all very hard but you would not like | W |
To take a simple example to take for example | H |
This place we have thought of here you would not like | W |
To find yourself face to face with it and you not knowing | X |
What there might be inside | Y |
- | |
Very well then suppose this is what you must capture | L |
It will not be easy not being very exposed | Z |
Secluded away like it is and somewhat protected | A2 |
By a typical formation of what appear to be bushes | N |
So that you cannot see as to what is concealed inside | Y |
As to whether it is friend or foe | V |
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And so a strong feint will be necessary in this connection | M |
It will not be a tray remember It may be a desert stretch | B2 |
With nothing in sight to speak of I have no wish to be inconsiderate | Y |
But I see there are two of you now commencing to snivel | H |
I do not know where such emotional privates can come from | C2 |
Try to behave like men | D2 |
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I thank you I was saying a thoughtful deception | M |
Is always somewhat essential in such a case You can see | A |
That if only the attacker can capture such an emplacement | Y |
The rest of the terrain is his a key position and calling | X |
For the most resourceful manoeuvres But that is what tactics is | N |
Or I should say rather are | E2 |
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Let us begin then and appreciate the situation | M |
I am thinking especially of the point we have been considering | X |
Though in a sense everything in the whole of the terrain | K |
Must be appreciated I do not know what I have said | Y |
To upset so many of you I know it is a difficult lesson | M |
Yesterday a man was sick | F2 |
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But I have never known as many as five in a single intake | G2 |
Unable to cope with this lesson I think you had better | L |
Fall out all five and sit at the back of the room | H2 |
Being careful not to talk The rest will close up | I2 |
Perhaps it was me saying 'a dead friend' earlier on | O |
Well some of us live | J2 |
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And I never know why whenever we get to tactics | N |
Men either laugh or cry though neither is strictly called for | K2 |
But perhaps I have started too early with a difficult task | L2 |
We will start again further north with a simpler problem | C2 |
Are you ready Is everyone paying attention | M |
Very well then Here are two hills | N |
Henry Reed
(1)
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