Analysis of Banking Coal
Jean Toomer 1894 (Washington, D.C.) – 1967 (Doylestown)
Whoever it was who brought the first wood and coal
To start the Fire, did his part well;
Not all wood takes to fire from a match,
Nor coal from wood before it’s burned to charcoal.
The wood and coal in question caught a flame
And flared up beautifully, touching the air
That takes a flame from anything.
Somehow the fire was furnaced,
And then the time was ripe for some to say,
“Right banking of the furnace saves the coal.”
I’ve seen them set to work, each in his way,
Though all with shovels and with ashes,
Never resting till the fire seemed most dead;
Whereupon they’d crawl in hooded night-caps
Contentedly to bed. Sometimes the fire left alone
Would die, but like as not spiced tongues
Remaining by the hardest on till day would flicker up,
Never strong, to anyone who cared to rake for them.
But roaring fires never have been made that way.
I’d like to tell those folks that one grand flare
Transferred to memory tissues of the air
Is worth a like, or, for dull minds that turn in gold,
All money ever saved by banking coal.
Scheme | AXXAXBX CDADXCXXXXXDBBCA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010111101101 110101111 1111110101 1111011111 0101010101 0111001001 1101110 101011 0101111111 1101010101 1111111011 111100110 10101010111 1011101011 01001101010101 11111111 01010101111101 101110111111 110101011111 1111111111 0111001101 110111111101 1101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,030 |
Words | 196 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 16 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 405 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 97 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 116 Views
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"Banking Coal" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21307/banking-coal>.
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