Analysis of That Poem You were Writing
Roger McGough 1937 (Litherland)
It's not easy being a poet nowadays.
Especially if you wander away from the desk
and pick up a newspaper, or listen to the radio,
switch on the TV, or be drawn into conversation.
That poem you were writing,
the one about your father taking you to the Stadium
as a kid to watch the boxing, and his annoyance
because you wanted to leave before the final bout.
(Jimmy Doyle a welterweight whose father
worked with yours on the docks.) Like Jimmy,
the poem was promising, as you negotiated the line
between memory and nostalgia, honesty and regret.
If not ringside seats, close enough to feel
the smack of leather, the gobs of sweat.
To feel cold jabs of nausea and the need to escape.
Without a word to your father, you wander away from the desk.
That poem you were writing,
still there on your return, but unrecognisable.
In the ring, Trump slugs it out with Kim Jong-un.
In the Ladies, Weinstein exposes himself to a suicide
bomber.
To put an end to the nonsense, you climb into the ring
only for Jimmy Doyle to fell you with a single blow to the
chin.
Scheme | xaxb Cxxx dxxe fexa Cfbxd cxx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101001010 010111001101 0110101101010 1101111101010 1101010 010111010110100 1011101001010 0111011010101 101010110 111101110 010110011010001 011000010100001 111110111 011100111 11111100001101 0101111011001101 1101010 11110111 00111111111 00101010011010 10 11111010110101 1011011111010110 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,050 |
Words | 196 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 3 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 138 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted by RobertHaigh on June 12, 2020
Modified by RobertHaigh on June 12, 2020
- 59 sec read
- 93 Views
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