Analysis of A Sonnet for Alan Kurdi

Corneigh Hoff 1950 (Assendelft)



one day you wrote your name upon the strand
a while, there was the imprint of your face
little sneakers denting the brackish sand
the sea touching your brow, a diadem of lace

the sweetest boy that ever reached the shore
so beautiful, so wonderful, now dead
you were alive, full-coloured, hours before
the wind roughly and softly made your bed

I swore, we swore, never to forget:
Alan, you’ll be the difference, yes, you will
we loved so deep, the moment that we met
then we unmet, as you lay there, so still

but came the waves and washed you away
but came the waves and washed you away


Scheme abab cdcd efef GG
Poetic Form
Metre 1111110101 0111001111 1010100101 01101101011 0101110101 1100110011 10011101001 0110010111 111110101 10110100111 1111010111 1101111111 110101101 110101101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 590
Words 114
Sentences 1
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 2
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 115
Words per stanza (avg) 28

About this poem

Inspired by Edmund Spenser, I dedicate this to Alan Kurdi, who, when he washed ashore in 2015, upset the world, causing mankind to agree that this would ever happen again; but came the waves...

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Submitted by CorneighHoff on April 13, 2023

Modified on April 13, 2023

34 sec read
7

Corneigh Hoff

Born in The Netherlands more…

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    "It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea."
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    B W.B. Yeats
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