Analysis of Moloch

Joseph Seamon Cotter 1861 (Louisville) – 1949



Old Moloch walks the way tonight
On Flander's poppied field,
Where foe meets foe in steel and might
And never one shall yield.

Old Moloch of the fiery shrine,
Deep in the throes of pain,
Cries for the bleeding anodyne
Of flesh of youths again.

Heart of my heart went out tonight,
Where Moloch holds the way,
To lads of brown and black and white
Who blazon Freedom's day.

Tear down the shrine of Moloch there,
From crimson field and glen,
Tear down the shrine of Moloch where
It shames the hearts of men.


Scheme ABAB CXCD AEAE FDFD
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 1110101 1111 11110101 010111 11101001 100111 110101 111101 11111101 11101 11110101 11101 1101111 110101 1101111 110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 508
Words 96
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 99
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

29 sec read
130

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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