Analysis of prism
A man is a dwarf under the trees,
And it isn’t just their wooden size;
Rather, it is we, multi-celled and plural,
Perceiving only if things are pieced
Together in a whole design, Mondrian
Or Kandinsky, or a harmonized beat
Ticking measures kindred to our pulse;
Rather that we are motley and partial
To the hunger pangs and to wrinkles,
To slaver and rheum, and to the fatal
Budding in swarming flesh.
Only our context
Moment to moment
Is a whole:
The lichen on the bark
Is quickly complete,
A beginning and an end,
A magnitude entire;
The cellular leaf
Grinds out man’s processes
Inside an hour;
The rising sparrow telescopes
A decade’s pilgrimage;
And eternity gluts the tiny span
When man’s life is mimicked
In a falling stone.
Scheme | XXAXXBXAX AX XXXXBXCXXCXXXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011011001 01111101 10111101010 010101111 01000101100 1110101 1010101101 1011110010 101010110 110101010 100101 101010 10110 101 010101 11001 0010011 010010 01001 111100 01110 0101010 001100 0010010101 111110 00101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 713 |
Words | 129 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 2, 15 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 193 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on July 26, 2010
Modified on March 22, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 1 View
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"prism" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/82318/prism>.
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