Analysis of Four
Screen door screamed a Southern song
Mama's big browns watched, hands pressed against the mesh
Four years old and I knew all the words
Daddy called me Suzy-Q in an accent thicker than humidity
Thicker than the Spanish moss
Two doors down the neighbor boy kept snakes
In a vacant room at the top of his house
We sat as balls
On chairs
In circles
And endured the snakes' release
I squirmed more than most
Dirt road home hid many things
Broken bottle sliced my foot; I did not cry
In the tub, Mama used sugar to stop the bleeding, and I
Delighted in Daddy's love offering
Cinnamon hots in a cooler cup
From Uncle Charlie's gas station
Scheme | XXXXX XXXXXXX XAAXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110101 10111110101 111011101 101110101011010100 1010101 111010111 00101101111 1111 11 010 0010101 11111 1111101 10101111111 001101101101001 0100101100 100100101 11010110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 614 |
Words | 118 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 7, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 168 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 01, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
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"Four" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 17 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/71749/four>.
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