Analysis of The Twenty-Fifth Year of His Life
Constantine P. Cavafy 1863 (Alexandria) – 1933 (Alexandria)
He goes regularly to the taverna
where they'd met the previous month.
He made inquiries, but they weren't able to tell him
anything.
From what they said, he gathered the person he'd met
was someone completely unknown,
one of the many unknown and shady young types
who dropped in there.
But he still goes to the taverna regularly, at night,
and sits there gazing toward the doorway,
gazing toward the doorway until he's worn out.
Maybe he'll walk in. Tonight maybe he'll turn up.
He does this for nearly three weeks.
His mind's sick with longing.
The kisses are there on his mouth.
His flesh, all of it, suffers from endless desire,
the feel of that other body is on his,
he wants to be joined with it again.
Of course he tries not to give himself away.
But sometimes he almost doesn't care.
Besides, he knows what he's exposing himself to,
he's come to accept it: quite possibly this life of his
will land him in a devastating scandal.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLMDNOPQJHRPS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11100010010 11101001 110100111010111 10 111111001011 1101001 110100101011 1101 111110010100011 011100101 10010101111 101100110111 11111011 111110 01011111 1111110110010 01111010111 111111101 11111110101 10111101 011111010011 11101111001111 1110010010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 921 |
Words | 172 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 23 |
Lines Amount | 23 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 730 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 170 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 34 Views
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"The Twenty-Fifth Year of His Life" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7256/the-twenty-fifth-year-of-his-life>.
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