Analysis of Slave And Emperor

Alfred Noyes 1880 (Wolverhampton) – 1958 (Isle of Wight)



'Our cavalry have rescued Nazareth from the enemy whose supermen
described Christianity as a creed for slaves.'

The Emperor mocked at Nazareth
In his almighty hour.
The Slave that bowed himself to death
And walked with slaves in Nazareth,
What were his words but wasted breath
Before that 'will to power'?

Yet, in the darkest hour of all,
When black defeat began,
The Emperor heard the mountains quake,
He felt the graves beneath him shake,
He watched his legions rally and break,
And he whimpered as they ran.

'I hear a shout that moves the earth,
A cry that wakes the dead!
Will no one tell me whence they come,
For all my messengers are dumb?
What power is this that comes to birth
And breaks my power?' he said.

Then, all around his foundering guns,
Though dawn was now not far,
The darkness filled with a living fear
That whispered at the Emperor's ear,
'_The armies of the dead draw near
Beneath an eastern star._'

_The trumpet blows in Nazareth.
The Slave is risen again.
Across the bitter wastes of death
The horsemen ride from Nazareth,
And the Power we mocked as wasted breath
Returns, in power, to reign;
Rides on, in white, through Nazareth,
To save His world again._


Scheme AX BCDBDC XAEEEA FGHHFG XXIXIC BADBDABA
Poetic Form
Metre 101001101001010011 01010010111 010011100 0101010 01110111 01110100 10111101 0111110 100101011 110101 010010101 11010111 111101001 011111 11011101 011101 11111111 11110011 110111111 0111011 110111001 111111 010110101 110101001 11010111 011101 11010100 0111001 01010111 01011100 0010111101 0101011 11011100 11111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,154
Words 217
Sentences 13
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 2, 6, 6, 6, 6, 8
Lines Amount 34
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 155
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:04 min read
42

Alfred Noyes

Alfred Noyes was an English poet best known for his ballads The Highwayman 1906 and The Barrel Organ more…

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