A Crowded Trolley-Car
Elinor Morton Wylie 1885 (Somerville, New Jersey) – 1928 (New York City, New York)
The rain's cold grains are silver-gray
Sharp as golden sands,
A bell is clanging, people sway
Hanging by their hands.
Supple hands, or gnarled and stiff,
Snatch and catch and grope;
That face is yellow-pale, as if
The fellow swung from rope.
Dull like pebbles, sharp like knives,
Glances strike and glare,
Fingers tangle, Bluebeard's wives
Dangle by the hair.
Orchard of the strangest fruits
Hanging from the skies;
Brothers, yet insensate brutes
Who fear each other's eyes.
One man stands as free men stand,
As if his soul might be
Brave, unbroken; see his hand
Nailed to an oaken tree.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 31 sec read
- 131 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF XGBG HIHI |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 591 |
Words | 103 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"A Crowded Trolley-Car" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/10139/a-crowded-trolley-car>.
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