Analysis of Last Answers

Carl Sandburg 1878 (Galesburg) – 1967 (Flat Rock)



I wrote a poem on the mist
And a woman asked me what I meant by it.
I had thought till then only of the beauty of the mist,
how pearl and gray of it mix and reel,
And change the drab shanties with lighted lamps at evening
into points of mystery quivering with color.

I answered:
The whole world was mist once long ago and some day
it will all go back to mist,
Our skulls and lungs are more water than bone and tissue
And all poets love dust and mist because all the last answers
Go running back to dust and mist.


Scheme AXAXXX XXAXXA
Poetic Form
Metre 11010101 00101111111 11111101010101 110111101 0101101101110 0111100100110 110 011111101011 1111111 1010111101101 011011010110110 11011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 509
Words 107
Sentences 4
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 6, 6
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 201
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
44

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor best known for poetry. more…

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