Analysis of Ballad Of The Traitor’s Soul
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
'Twas the shrunken soul of the traitor
That whined in a coign of the dark;
And the fiends were aroused from slumber,
When Cerberus began to bark.
'Methought that I spoke' said Julian,
Who betrayed God's own demesne;
'And I,' said the ghost of Caesar,
'Heard the dying groans of the slain.'
'Twas the voice,' said the high priest Caiaphas,
'That uttered those words of awe,
'Ye have given a tithe of anise,
And broken the weightier law.'
Then cried out Judas Iscariot,
Who fled on the wings of the wind;
'Some one is counting the silver,
And wailing because I sinned.'
But spake up the seven devils,
That vexed Mary Magdalene;
'The days of our bondage are over,
We are no longer unclean.'
'Moreover the voice that called us,
Said 'Enter the souls of men,
For Belial rules this cycle,
And Mammon has triumphed again.''
Then the horrent jowls of Moloch,
Wrinkled into a grin,
And he growled 'tis the soul of the traitor,
Open and let him in.'
'Twas the shrunken soul of the traitor,
Like a mouse at the furnace door,
That stood in the haze of hades,
And trembled within its roar.
Then uprose the form of Satan,
And taking a crucible saith:
'The shrunken soul of the traitor
Shall suffer the second death.'
'Come anarchs of ancient cities,
And captains of torch and sword;
For hell hath never received one,
By God and fiends so abhorred.'
Then the shrunken soul of the traitor,
Pleaded that he might live:
'Ye have borne with Phillip and Herod,
And my sin ye ought to forgive.'
But Phillip came forward and mocked him:--
'The laws of God may atone
The crime of destroying a country,
Unless he destroys his own.'
So the horrent jowls of Moloch
Wrinkled into a grin,
And the crucible being ready,
They threw the renegade in;
And fed the fire underneath it,
Until in the crucible lay
A drop of green, bitter water
That smelled of death and decay.
Then Satan siezed hold of the crucible,
And drained the drop on the fire,
And a flame leaped up to the heavens,
And instantly did expire.
And there in the darkness that followed
The arch fiends with broken breath,
Fled far from the place of horror,
And the sight of the second death.
Scheme | Abab ccax dxdx xxax deae dfgf hIai Ajdj ckak dlcl axxx xmnm hIni xoao gadx xkak |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (69%) |
Metre | 101011010 11001101 001001110 110111 11111100 101111 01101110 10101101 10110111 1101111 111001110 010011 111100100 11101101 11110010 0100111 11101010 111010 0111010110 1111001 01001111 1100111 111110 0111001 101111 100101 0111011010 100110 101011010 10110101 11001110 0100111 1101110 01001001 01011010 1100101 1111010 0101101 11110011 1101101 101011010 101111 111110010 01111101 110110011 0111101 011010010 0110111 101111 100101 001001010 110100 01010011 01001001 01111010 1111001 1101110100 01011010 001111010 0100101 010010110 0111101 11101110 00110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,131 |
Words | 402 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 16 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:57 min read
- 53 Views
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"Ballad Of The Traitor’s Soul" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8514/ballad-of-the-traitor%E2%80%99s-soul>.
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