Analysis of Holding on to Death
Richard Groff 1957 (Pottstown, Pa.)
Although the church is mostly dead
There are still a few alive
And if they’ll strengthen what remains
Perhaps they will survive
God will preserve a remnant
Just the way He’s always done
A few without stains on their clothes
The way they had begun
But most of them won’t wake up
Till their meal is on their plate
And grief will overcome them
When they taste the things, they ate
The murder and the envy
And the anger and the strife
They chose to hold these deep inside
Instead of choosing life
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCXC XDXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1011101 1110101 01110101 011101 1101010 101111 01011111 011101 1111111 1111111 011101 1110111 0100010 0010001 11111101 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 501 |
Words | 96 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 99 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Written on July 10, 2009
Submitted by dawg4jesus on October 31, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 28 sec read
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"Holding on to Death" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/141712/holding-on-to-death>.
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