Analysis of Anarchy

John McCrae 1872 (Guelph) – 1918 (Boulogne-sur-Mer)



I saw a city filled with lust and shame,
 Where men, like wolves, slunk through the grim half-light;
And sudden, in the midst of it, there came
 One who spoke boldly for the cause of Right.

And speaking, fell before that brutish race
 Like some poor wren that shrieking eagles tear,
While brute Dishonour, with her bloodless face
 Stood by and smote his lips that moved in prayer.

"Speak not of God!  In centuries that word
 Hath not been uttered!  Our own king are we."
And God stretched forth his finger as He heard
 And o'er it cast a thousand leagues of sea.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF
Poetic Form Traditional rhyme
Quatrain 
Metre 1101011101 1111110111 0100011111 1111010111 0101011101 1111110101 11110101 1101111101 1111010011 11110101111 0111110111 01011010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 559
Words 106
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 144
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 27, 2023

31 sec read
141

John McCrae

Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae, MD was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I, and a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium. more…

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