Analysis of Corpses In The Woods

Ernst Toller 1893 (Samotschin, Posen) – 1939 (New York City)



A dung heap of rotting corpses:
Glazed eyes, bloodshot,
Brains split, guts spewed out
The air poisoned by the stink of corpses
A single awful cry of madness.

Oh, women in France,
Women of Germany
Regard your menfolk!
They fumble with torn hands
For the swollen bodies of their enemies,
Gestures, stiff in death, become the touch of brotherhood,
Yes, they embrace each other,
Oh, horrible embrace!

I see and see and am struck dumb
Am I a beast, a murderous dog?
Men violated
Murdered.


Scheme ABBAX XXCXXBXX XCBB
Poetic Form
Metre 01111010 111 11111 0110101110 010101110 11001 101100 0111 110111 10101011100 101010101110 1101110 110001 11010111 110101001 11000 10
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 490
Words 87
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 8, 4
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 127
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

26 sec read
130

Ernst Toller

Ernst Toller was a German left-wing playwright, best known for his Expressionist plays. He served in 1919 for six days as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, after which he became the head of its army. He was imprisoned for five years for his part in the armed resistance by the Soviet Republic to the central government in Berlin. While in prison Toller wrote several plays which gained him international renown. They were performed in London and New York as well as Berlin. In the year 2000, several of his plays were published in an English translation. In 1933 Toller was exiled from Germany after the Nazis came to power. He did a lecture tour in 1936–1937 in the United States and Canada, settling in California for a while before going to New York. He joined other exiles there. Struggling financially and depressed at learning his brother and sister had been sent to a concentration camp in Germany, he committed suicide in May 1939. more…

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