Analysis of Sonnet to Negro Soldiers

Joseph Seamon Cotter 1861 (Louisville) – 1949



They shall go down unto Life's Borderland,
Walk unafraid within that Living Hell,
Nor heed the driving rain of shot and shell
That 'round them falls; but with uplifted hand
Be one with mighty hosts, an arméd band
Against man's wrong to man--for such full well
They know. And from their trembling lips shall swell
A song of hope the world can understand.
All this to them shall be a glorious sign,
A glimmer of that resurrection morn,
When age-long Faith crowned with a grace benign
Shall rise and from their brows cast down the thorn
Of prejudice. E'en though through blood it be,
There breaks this day their dawn of Liberty.


Scheme ABBAABBACDCDEA
Poetic Form
Metre 11111011 101011101 1101011101 1111111001 1111011111 0111111111 11011100111 011101101 11111101001 010110101 1111110101 1101111101 11001111111 1111111100
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 634
Words 114
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 495
Words per stanza (avg) 112
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
98

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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