Analysis of Another Tale of Two Cities
A Big City - the cortex of our civilization
My frontal cortex - a city doomed by Darwin’s design.
Nurtured by the spinal cord,
Or a river, let’s say Thames.
There are wide streets of frequent use -
Mortgage Road, Daily Grind High,
And narrow dirty passages of dodgy dealings -
Coming-Now Crescent or Anal Close.
We are proud of the magnificent underground system
Of emotional responses:
Red Central - for anger,
Circular Yellow - runs obsessive emotions of guilt and shame,
Blue - Victoria! - for states of spiritual elation
(very irregular, prone to signal failures)
Northern Black - for dark depression and despair
(although the longest and the slowest one - always crowded)
The Cities never sleep,
Always change shape
In a constant chase
After illusions of improvement.
Yes, there are some moments of spiritual and creative genius,
Say, Tate Modern and St.Pauls,
But mostly they are filled with rows of terraced mediocrity,
Crowded by mundane little neurons
Rushing to make it to work on time.
There are also green patches of respite,
Where they can have a rushed lie-down
Between an old hot-dog and a fresh dog-poo.
Poignantly those places are named "the Commons"
Reminding the lawn users of their overall status.
Like most citizens,
I dream of a peaceful village
Defying laws of evolution,
With two, even better, one road -
Preferably the Yellow Brick Road.
And then,
You can call me an earthworm
Or a bodhisattva.
I won’t be bothered either way.
Scheme | AXXB XCXXXXXXAXXX XXXX DBXXXXXXED EXAFF XXCX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01100101100010 1101001011101 1010101 1010111 11111101 1011011 010101001110 101101101 1111001001010 10100010 110110 1001010100101101 101001111000010 100100111010 10111010001 101000101110 010101 111 00101 100101010 11111011000001010 111001 110111111100100 101011010 101111111 1110110110 11110111 01111100111 10011011010 0100110111010 11100 11101010 01011010 11101011 100001011 01 111111 101 11110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,420 |
Words | 248 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 12, 4, 10, 5, 4 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 192 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
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Submitted on May 02, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 3 Views
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"Another Tale of Two Cities" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/65946/another-tale-of-two-cities>.
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