Analysis of The Frantic Shopper
There are mobs of minions,
shopping for their younguns’.
They push their carts
in stops and starts,
carrying their bags
looking at tags,
searching for the perfect gift.
A frantic shopper wades through the crowds.
“They’re all quite loud,”
she thinks to herself, then moves on.
“Where’s the toy my child wanted?”
She asks the clerk, his eyes looking haunted.
“Sorry we’re out.
Check back later,” he shouts
above the din.
“What? You haven’t got it in?
Call another store.
Surely, there’ve got to be more.”
“OK. I’ll check,” he says and picks up the phone.
“Yes,” he nods. “There’s one and one alone.”
“Hold it for me,” she demands,
“I’ll be right there.”
“OK,” the clerk says, as the others stare,
though the frantic shopper is quite unaware.
She weaves through traffic, passing other cars.
The speedometer pushes
higher and higher than ever before.
The landscape blurs past,
her eyes intent,
hell-bent
on getting that toy.
“Please be there for my little boy,”
she says under her breath,
but the lot is full, a fate worse than death.
“There’s no place to park,” she screams.
But she is wrong it seems.
A family strolls casually by
with a toddler waving hi
to all passersby.
“Come on. Come on.
Get in your car,” she urges them on.
They climb in their car
and strap their child in his seat.
Their running lights come on.
The frantic shopper grits her teeth.
Time feels frozen, her heart just as cold.
She curses and beats the old
steering wheel.
With impatience, she tamps her heel.
The family’s car cautiously eases out.
The frantic shopper swerves in and gets out
of her car, swiftly finding a cart.
The cool handle of the cart
hastens her nerves.
She spits out.
“If that jerk
sales clerk
told me wrong:
It’s on
like Donkey Kong!”
She rushes inside,
pushed by her pride.
She overwhelms the cashier.
“Do you have it? Do we have a deal?”
“Sorry ma’am but this customer has the last,”
the cashier whispers as she accepts a frail, old woman’s cash.
The frail lady with the toy just smiles,
an ironic smile, the frantic shopper thinks.
I’ll wipe it off and take what’s mine.
She grits her teeth, baring them all.
The frail lady just smiles again and extends her hand.
“Here. You have it. Merry Christmas.
We already bought one for my grandson last week.
This was for a homeless boy I used to teach.”
The frantic shopper extends her hand
and grasps the gift.
“It’s mine,” she screams.
“The toy of my son’s dreams!”
Then the frantic shopper’s eyes drift
down to the frail ladies sweatshirt.
Penned in cursive in homemade stitching, it says:
“Merry Christmas, our Lord is the only gift we need.”
The frantic shopper fights her greed,
beats her breast,
crosses her chest,
and finally gathers herself.
Suddenly, her lips crack a warm smile
“Please. Take it. Give it to the boy in need.”
Scheme | AABBCCDXXEFFGXHHIIJJXKKK XXILMMNNOOPPQQXEEXXEXRRSSGGTTXGUUVEVWW XSLXXXXXXXXXXDPPDXXYYZZXXY |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110 10111 1111 0101 10011 1011 1010011 010101101 1111 11101111 1011110 1101111010 1001 111011 0101 111110 10101 1011111 11111101101 111110101 1111101 1111 1101110101 1010101101 1111010101 0010010 1001011001 0111 0101 11 11011 11111101 111001 1011101111 1111111 111111 0100110001 1010101 11100 1111 101111011 11011 0111011 110111 01010101 111001111 1100101 101 10101101 011100101 0101010011 101101001 0110101 1001 111 111 11 111 11 1101 11001 1101 101001 111111101 10111100101 00110110101111 011010111 10101010101 11110101 11011011 0110110100101 11111010 10101111111 11101011111 010100101 0101 1111 011111 10101011 1101101 1010111011 10101011010111 01010101 101 1001 01001001 100011011 1111110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,809 |
Words | 516 |
Sentences | 63 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 24, 38, 26 |
Lines Amount | 88 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 705 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 165 |
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Submitted on January 05, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:34 min read
- 2 Views
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"The Frantic Shopper" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/86744/the-frantic-shopper>.
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