Structure and versification

Structure in Miners

In Miners Owen moves us in the course of nine quatrains from warmth and comfort to the coldness of death. The first eight verses have the same shape: the first and third longer lines punctuated by the short second and fourth lines. He uses these to carry painful messages such as ‘moans down there’ l.14, ‘writhing for air’ l.16 and ‘left in the ground’ l.34.

The final stanza has a similar pattern but is a sestet. Owen presents us with a complete idea in each of the first seven verses; each ends in a full stop. However stanza seven ends with a semicolon which links its sense to that of the final verse. These last two stanzas are made up of four statements, each separated by a semicolon, which allow Owen to build up the tension until the last line where the dead are ‘left in the ground.’

Versification 

Rhyme

The pararhymes, which Owen uses so consistently throughout the poem, serve to re-inforce the long and short lines, but the patterns created have very specific meaning:

• ‘coal’ / ‘recall’ l.2,4 present the poem’s essence
• Both ‘ferns’ / ‘fauns’ l.6,8 and ‘simmer’ / ‘summer’ l.9,11 create a sense of great lengths of ancient time
• The linking of ‘cauldron’ and ‘children’ l.10,12 ominously links ancient magic with young life
• Both ‘chaired’ and ‘cheered l.25,27 suggest comfortable complacency
• The warm orange ‘amber’ and ‘ember l.26,28 contrast fossilisation with sacrifice
• With ‘loads’ / ‘lids’ / ‘lads’ l.29,31,33 Owen relates the burden of the dying to the comfortable sleep of the living and the reality of the men and boys whose sacrifice has enabled that
• ‘groaned’ / ‘crooned’ / ‘ground’ l.29,31,33 link the pain of the dying with the soothing of the living and the uncompromising fate of the dead.

Rhythm

Owen uses irregular rhythmic patterns in Miners, with some lines having unsettling extra syllables (e.g. l.1,9,13). Often he reverses a foot (e.g. ‘Writhing’ l.16, ‘Digging’ l.23) for emphasis or uses spondees to slow the pace (‘Frond-forests; and the low sly lives’). He also intersperses two beat feet with those of three beats: ‘But they / will not dream / of us / poor lads’, the speed of the longer middle foot indicating the dismissiveness of people in the future.

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