Analysis of Drum Beatings
John Jessup Kennan 1953 (Pomona)
I have an acoustic personality
Stone piano hands
The vocals of a stand-up bass
And a fiddlin' kind of mind
I've been listening to drums
For so very long it seems
Patiently I wait for lightning
To flash some kind of sign
Drums of thunder tumble
Along crevices in clouds
Rumble out the omens
Of Messengers Benign
Stuck on Terra Firma
Waters above, below
I feel just like lightning
In the eyes of the Divine
The river is a woman's voice
Soft as an evening prayer
It flows so deeply through me
Fluently unspoken
Before the parting of the skies
Brings the rumblings to life
Finally, the lightning strikes
And splits the close-knit skies wide-open
Drums of thunder tumble
Along crevices in clouds
Rumble out the omens
Of Messengers Benign
Stuck on Terra Firma
Waters above, below
I feel just like lightning
In the eyes of the Divine
So rumble on, ye Messengers
With a voice of many waters
Let the eagle and the buzzard
And the hawk and sparrow shiver
Let the shark and trout and manatee
Feel the rumblings of heartbeats
And may all of my beloved
Feel like lightning in your quiver
Drums of thunder tumble
Along crevices in clouds
Rumble out the omens
Of Messengers Benign
Stuck on Terra Firma
Waters above, below
I feel just like lightning
In the eyes of the Divine
© John Kennan 7-29-18
Scheme | axxxxxbc DEFCGHBC xxaixxxi DEFCGHBC jjxkaxxk DEFCGHBC i |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110100100 10101 01010111 001111 1110011 1110111 10011110 111111 111010 0110001 101010 110001 111010 100101 111110 0011001 01010101 111101 1111011 100010 01010101 1010011 1000101 010111110 111010 0110001 101010 110001 111010 100101 111110 0011001 11011100 10111010 10100010 00101010 10101010 1010011 0111101 11100110 111010 0110001 101010 110001 111010 100101 111110 0011001 110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,235 |
Words | 232 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 1 |
Lines Amount | 49 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 148 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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"Drum Beatings" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 17 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/100761/drum-beatings>.
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