Analysis of When Was the Last Time
When was the last time you felt movement I ask.
And she, only sixteen and battered is
uncomprehending and cannot remember
and cannot look at me,
or at her mother who arose in the middle of the night to drive her to the hospital.
Now in baggy black sweatpants soaked in the
fluid that once protected the fragile life within her womb, now a sepulcher.
And she, only sixteen and battered with the swollen purple halo surrounding her left eye.
She is quiet, withdrawn.
There will be no celebration of birth here,
no sacred blue corn sprinkled on the new babe,
no prayers offered.
And the grandmothers, lamenting how life has changed, stare deep into the canyons
This young one, only sixteen and battered.
Meanwhile the crystal morning is born. The turquoise blue of an autumn sky glistens over the canyon walls.
Sunlight falls upon the golden cottonwood trees and hawks soar.
Scheme | X XAXX XA XX XXB X B X X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111011 0110010101 1010010 010111 1101010100101011101010 101011100 101101001010101101 01100101010101010010011 111001 1111010111 11011101011 1110 001001011111101010 1111001010 101010110101111011100101 1101010101011 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 880 |
Words | 171 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 2, 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 44 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 78 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 17 |
About this poem
written the morning after a long night in the delivery suite.
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Written on October 30, 2018
Submitted by LRB on April 23, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
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"When Was the Last Time" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 15 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/125366/when-was-the-last-time>.
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