Analysis of Harold Arnett
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
I leaned against the mantel, sick, sick,
Thinking of my failure, looking into the abysm,
Weak from the noon-day heat.
A church bell sounded mournfully far away,
I heard the cry of a baby,
And the coughing of John Yarnell,
Bed-ridden, feverish, feverish, dying,
Then the violent voice of my wife:
"Watch out, the potatoes are burning!"
I smelled them ... then there was irresistible disgust.
I pulled the trigger ... blackness ... light ...
Unspeakable regret ... fumbling for the world again.
Too late! Thus I came here,
With lungs for breathing ... one cannot breathe here with lungs,
Though one must breathe.... Of what use is it
To rid one's self of the world,
When no soul may ever escape the eternal destiny of life?
Scheme | ABCDEFGHGIJKLMNOH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101011 101110100101 110111 011101101 11011010 00101110 11010010010 101001111 110010110 111111010001 11010101 01000110010101 111111 111101101111 111111111 1111101 11111001001010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 713 |
Words | 124 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 17 |
Lines Amount | 17 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 545 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 127 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 04, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 91 Views
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"Harold Arnett" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8593/harold-arnett>.
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