Analysis of One Hour Ater The Dance Of Death
Franz Werfel 1890 (Prague) – 1945 (Manhattan)
I lay in the abyss, where twisting squeezing
The lowest form of life pushed itself peristaltically.
Where slippery and slimy worm and eel entwined,
I was a worm myself, overwhelmed with exhaustion.
This lasted an eon before I succeeded,
And one of my senses could slowly lift itself up,
The sense of hearing. Listening, it scouted out if
The dancer, Death, had finally waltzed into the distance.
I eavesdrop breathless. Then a sparkling chromatic scale
Flows wanly from the open window next door.
Maybe Death is sitting there tuning his piano.
And while my life enjoys zestfully eating and fills with gas,
I feel him lean in that requisite little side room,
Where he invisibly reads, rustling the evening paper.
Scheme | XAXX XXXX AXX XXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11000111010 0101111011 110001010101 11011011010 110110011010 0111101101011 0111010011011 01011100101010 1110101011 1110101011 1011101101010 0111011100111 1111011001011 11111001010 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 706 |
Words | 122 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 41 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 143 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 101 Views
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"One Hour Ater The Dance Of Death" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14200/one-hour-ater-the-dance-of-death>.
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