Analysis of The City
Constantine P. Cavafy 1863 (Alexandria) – 1933 (Alexandria)
You said, "I will go to another land, I will go to another sea.
Another city will be found, a better one than this.
Every effort of mine is a condemnation of fate;
and my heart is -- like a corpse -- buried.
How long will my mind remain in this wasteland.
Wherever I turn my eyes, wherever I may look
I see black ruins of my life here,
where I spent so many years destroying and wasting."
You will find no new lands, you will find no other seas.
The city will follow you. You will roam the same
streets. And you will age in the same neighborhoods;
and you will grow gray in these same houses.
Always you will arrive in this city. Do not hope for any other --
There is no ship for you, there is no road.
As you have destroyed your life here
in this little corner, you have ruinded it in the entire world.
Scheme | XXXXXXAX XXXXXXAX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111010111110101 01010111010111 10010111001011 011110110 1111101011 0101111010111 111101111 1111101010010 1111111111101 010110111101 1011100110 0111101110 11101011011111010 1111111111 11101111 0110101111000101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 796 |
Words | 164 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 307 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 81 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 157 Views
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"The City" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7237/the-city>.
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