Analysis of Head Against The Walls
Paul Eluard 1895 (Saint-Denis) – 1952 (Charenton-le-Pont)
There were only a few of them
In all the earth
Each one thought he was alone
They sang, they were right
To sing
But they sang the way you sack a city
The way you kill yourself.
Frayed moist night
Shall we endure you
Longer
Shall we not shake
Your cloacal evidence
We shall not wait for a morning
Made to measure
We wanted to see in other people's eyes
Their nights of love exhausted
They dream only of dying
Their lovely flesh forgotten
Bees caught in their honey
They are ignorant of life
And we suffer everywhere
Red roofs dissolve under the tongue
Dog days in the full beds
Come, empty your sacks of fresh blood
There is still a shadow here
A shred of imbecile there
In the wind their masks, their cast-offs
In lead their traps, their chains
And their prudent blind-men's gestures
There is fire under rocks
If you put out the fire
Be careful we have
Despite the night it breeds
More strength than the belly
Of your wives and sisters
And we will reproduce
Without them but by ax strokes
In your prisons
Torrents of stone labors of foam
Where eyes float without rancor
Just eyes without hope
That know you
And that you should have put out
Rather than ignore
With a safety pin quicker than your gibbets
We shall take our booty where we want it to be
Scheme | XXXABCX ADEXFBEXGBXCXHXXGX HXXIXEXXCIXXX XEXDXX FC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10100111 0101 1111101 11101 11 1110111010 011101 111 11011 10 1111 11100 11111010 1110 11011010101 1111010 1110110 1101010 110110 1110011 011010 11011001 110011 11011111 111011 0111001 00111111 011111 01101110 1110101 1111010 11011 010111 111010 111010 01101 0111111 0110 10111011 1110110 11011 111 0111111 10101 1010110111 1111010111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,217 |
Words | 239 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 18, 13, 6, 2 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 201 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 83 Views
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"Head Against The Walls" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28552/head-against-the-walls>.
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