Analysis of The City Clocks

Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)



THE City clocks point out the hours
They look like moons on their darkened towers-

And I who was shown my destination
Thrice, but have no sense of location,

Am back again at one or the other
Looming clocks that have changed the figure.

Moments a thousand have hurried over,
And the sought place is as far as ever.

The City clocks point out the hours
They look like moons on their darkened towers;

That Time and Place are a tangled skein
Their mingled strokes say over again.


Scheme AA bb cc cc AA xx
Poetic Form
Metre 010111010 1111111010 011111010 111111010 1101111010 101111010 1001011010 0011111110 010111010 1111111010 110110101 110111001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 471
Words 90
Sentences 4
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 63
Words per stanza (avg) 15
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

27 sec read
332

Padraic Colum

Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. more…

All Padraic Colum poems | Padraic Colum Books

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