Analysis of Water so Clean
With our water so clean,
It’s easy to wash hands,
And try not to see
Beyond safe confines,
For we might just choke
On tear gas and smoke.
With our water so clear,
We can't begin to hear
That little girl crying,
Her brother and mother dying,
Or those men with metal sticks,
Who take all the risks,
Fighting their very rescuers,
Lighting up even their sewers,
In grief for wives' lives lost,
To an indifferent frost.
All these screams and shouts
Go unheard in whitewashed clouds.
Make more calm phone calls,
Behind thicker walls.
With our water so cold,
Our clean laundry to fold,
We can’t feel the boy’s tears,
Or touch his father’s fears.
Is it really so far away,
Or just a trick we play?
We always have more bills to pay.
There’s more water to buy,
And nothing to do, but sigh.
Maybe one day,
We'll ask why
We couldn't afford to pay
For a sad girl to stay
Alive and unafraid.
We don't need clean hands, today.
(Author's Note: I would like to thank Lindsay-George-Hall for his contribution to the editing of this poem. He is a great writer, who deserves your careful attentions, especially to his poems "The Knight" and "Homer", which are both worthwhile reads).
Scheme | XXXXAAXXBBXXCCDDXXEE FFXXGGGHHGHGGXG X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101011 110111 01111 0111 11111 11101 1101011 110111 110110 01001010 1111101 11101 1011010 10110110 011111 110101 11101 101011 11111 01101 1101011 1011011 111011 111101 11101101 110111 1111111 111011 0101111 1011 111 1100111 101111 01001 1111101 10111111101111010101001110110110101110010010111001010111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,138 |
Words | 212 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 15, 1 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 299 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 71 |
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Submitted on March 15, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:05 min read
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