Analysis of I Sometimes Wonder If the Mighty God

Joseph Seamon Cotter 1861 (Louisville) – 1949



I sometimes wonder if the mighty God
Cares aught about the little deeds of men;
And if their day and time can reach his ken
Or raise their breath above the hungry sod.
Does He who lightly holds th' eternal rod,
Now taut, now loose, the threads of Why and When?
Giving passing heed--or be they one or ten--
To one-time flesh but now the wind-blown clod?

If men can die who never yet knew life,
And, smiling, hold it is no strange affair;
Or live when death were welcome boon of strife,
Torn, broken sheaves the ghostly reapers spare;
The saints must grieve for earthly sorrows rife,
And God must heed, yea surely, God must care.


Scheme ABBAABBA CDCDCD
Poetic Form Petrarchan sonnet 
Metre 1011010101 1101010111 0111011111 1111010101 111101110101 1111011101 10101111111 1111110111 1111110111 0101111101 1111010111 110101011 0111110101 0111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 634
Words 119
Sentences 5
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 243
Words per stanza (avg) 59
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
106

Joseph Seamon Cotter

Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr. was an American playwright, author and poet from Louisville, Kentucky most remembered for his posthumously published one-act play On The Fields of France in addition to numerous volumes of poetry. more…

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