Analysis of A wilting flower
Michael Ullom 2004 (Fayetteville)
Time is a
wilting flower.
It roots itself
in every man’s
garden,
then leeches off
other’s nutrients.
Near his end,
his petals fall to the
earth.
Like shattered glass,
our lives are
fragile petals.
Defensive, but not whole.
Beautiful, but broken;
when the time comes,
and the wind blows
our gentle flower
away,
it will be carried
to a beautiful place.
Filled with quiet company
and other forgotten
dreams.
When you’re born,
a flower blooms
within your soul.
Just to mock you,
for your world will
never be as:
simple, beautiful, or
complete.
It claims your
memory,
then dies and
decomposes.
Our memory is
carried in our
children.
Our curse too,
for time is a
wilting flower.
Perhaps there is
a glass jar
containing words
I should have
said?
What if there’s a vine
around my throat
that only loosens
as I lay in
bed?
I took a walk
within a forest
to see the world
that I have so badly
missed.
It was filled with
litter
and a
starving
bird.
There is not a
tint of happiness
from the glare
of the sun
upon water.
Only the flame
of an aging
sun
and a ticking
bomb.
There is no connection
in life,
only a contract
that time has rid
void.
The ground beneath me
has been claimed by a
blue wilting flower,
and there is no other
garden.
Scheme | aBxxCxxxaxxdxecxxbxxxfcxxxegxxhxhfxiibcgaB idxxjxxxxjxxxfxxbakxaxxcbxkckxcxxxxfabbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110 1010 1101 01001 10 1101 10100 111 110110 1 1101 1011 1010 010111 100110 1011 0011 101010 01 11110 101001 1110100 010010 1 111 0101 0111 1111 1111 1011 101001 01 111 100 110 010 101001 10010 10 1011 1110 1010 0111 011 0101 111 1 11101 0111 11010 1110 1 1101 01010 1101 111110 1 1111 10 00 10 1 1110 11100 101 101 0110 1001 1110 1 0010 1 111010 01 1001 1111 1 01011 11110 11010 011110 10 |
Closest metre | Iambic dimeter |
Characters | 1,247 |
Words | 271 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 42, 40 |
Lines Amount | 82 |
Letters per line (avg) | 12 |
Words per line (avg) | 3 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 478 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 115 |
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Written on July 17, 2021
Submitted by michaelu.47366 on February 23, 2023
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 22 Views
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"A wilting flower" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/152147/a-wilting-flower>.
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