Analysis of A Worker Reads History
Bertolt Brecht 1898 (Augsburg) – 1956 (East Berlin)
Who built the seven gates of Thebes?
The books are filled with names of kings.
Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?
And Babylon, so many times destroyed.
Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses,
That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it?
In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished
Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome
Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song.
Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend
The night the seas rushed in,
The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves.
Young Alexander conquered India.
He alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Was there not even a cook in his army?
Phillip of Spain wept as his fleet
was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears?
Frederick the Greek triumphed in the Seven Years War.
Who triumphed with him?
Each page a victory
At whose expense the victory ball?
Every ten years a great man,
Who paid the piper?
So many particulars.
So many questions.
Scheme | XXAXXXXXXXXXX XAXBXXXX BXXX XX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 01111111 110111010111 010110101 11010111011110 1101001111111 001010011110 11010101001 11111101111101 1010100100101 0101010001000101010 010110 0101110111 101010100 101 10101 11110010110 10111111 11001011101 100110001011 11011 110100 110101001 10011011 11010 1100100 11010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,029 |
Words | 192 |
Sentences | 26 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 13, 8, 4, 2 |
Lines Amount | 27 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 207 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 603 Views
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"A Worker Reads History" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4288/a-worker-reads-history>.
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