Analysis of Pale Riders
Stars and Stripes waved in such bright glory,
over bleeding children's corpses.
the braves were far away
there was no resistance against the Hotchkiss Guns.
The women screamed and cried as,
Soldiers rode so, so brave, to the strains of "Gary Owen".
I know today what that stripe of yellow on your pant still stands,
as you rode away.
Strips of flesh cut from dying mothers,
You displayed their sex upon your hats of blue.
That day at Wounded Knee you should have struck your spangled banner,
a swastika will do.
A nation hides its living genocide in the corridors of time,
but God remembers still.
Author notes
Based on historical events that occurred at Wounded Knee Creek on Dec. 29th, 1890. This poem was created as a result oy my reading of the book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Historian Dee Brown. For full details of the massacre please read the book.
Scheme | X X A X X X X A X B X B X X XX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101101110 10101010 010101 111010010101 0101011 10111110111010 110111111011111 11101 111111010 10111011111 111101111111010 010011 0101110100010011 110101 101 110100011011101111111101010100111101011011110110100111101101001101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 992 |
Words | 182 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 43 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 46 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 10 |
About this poem
This poem about a massacre of native American people by the U.S. Cavalry is very explicit, and not for everybody. The facts are true as stated.
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Written on 2014
Submitted on March 02, 2023
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 2 Views
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"Pale Riders" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/152632/pale-riders>.
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