Analysis of The Color Sergeant
James Weldon Johnson 1871 (Jacksonville) – 1938 (Wiscasset)
(On an Incident at the Battle of San Juan Hill)
Under a burning tropic sun,
With comrades around him lying,
A trooper of the sable Tenth
Lay wounded, bleeding, dying.
First in the charge up the fort-crowned hill,
His company's guidon bearing,
He had rushed where the leaden hail fell fast,
Not death nor danger fearing.
He fell in the front where the fight grew fierce,
Still faithful in life's last labor;
Black though his skin, yet his heart as true
As the steel of his blood-stained saber
.
And while the battle around him rolled,
Like the roar of a sullen breaker,
He closed his eyes on the bloody scene,
And presented arms to his Maker.
There he lay, without honor or rank,
But, still, in a grim-like beauty;
Despised of men for his humble race,
Yet true, in death, to his duty.
Scheme | A XBXB ABXB XCXC XCXC XDXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110010101111 10010101 1101110 01010101 1101010 100110111 1100110 1111010111 1111010 1100110111 11001110 111111111 101111110 1 010100111 101101010 111110101 001011110 111011011 11001110 011111101 11011110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 770 |
Words | 145 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 9, 4 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 121 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 181 Views
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