Analysis of Accomplished Facts
Carl Sandburg 1878 (Galesburg) – 1967 (Flat Rock)
Every year Emily Dickinson sent one friend
the first arbutus bud in her garden.
In a last will and testament Andrew Jackson
remembered a friend with the gift of George
Washington’s pocket spy-glass.
Napoleon too, in a last testament, mentioned a silver
watch taken from the bedroom of Frederick the Great,
and passed along this trophy to a particular friend.
O. Henry took a blood carnation from his coat lapel
and handed it to a country girl starting work in a
bean bazaar, and scribbled: “Peach blossoms may or
may not stay pink in city dust.”
So it goes. Some things we buy, some not.
Tom Jefferson was proud of his radishes, and Abe
Lincoln blacked his own boots, and Bismarck called
Berlin a wilderness of brick and newspapers.
So it goes. There are accomplished facts.
Ride, ride, ride on in the great new blimps—
Cross unheard-of oceans, circle the planet.
When you come back we may sit by five hollyhocks.
We might listen to boys fighting for marbles.
The grasshopper will look good to us.
So it goes …
Scheme | AB BXX XXA XXXXXXXX XXXXXX X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001100100111 01110010 001101001010 0100110111 11011 0100100110010010 11010111001 01011101001001 11010101011101 01011010110100 10101011011 11110101 111111111 1100111110001 101111011 01010011010 111110101 111100111 10111010010 11111111110 11101110110 01011111 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,006 |
Words | 183 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 3, 3, 8, 6, 1 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 133 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 114 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Accomplished Facts" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4595/accomplished-facts>.
Discuss this Carl Sandburg poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In