One Hour Ater The Dance Of Death
Franz Werfel 1890 (Prague) – 1945 (Manhattan)
I lay in the abyss, where twisting squeezing
The lowest form of life pushed itself peristaltically.
Where slippery and slimy worm and eel entwined,
I was a worm myself, overwhelmed with exhaustion.
This lasted an eon before I succeeded,
And one of my senses could slowly lift itself up,
The sense of hearing. Listening, it scouted out if
The dancer, Death, had finally waltzed into the distance.
I eavesdrop breathless. Then a sparkling chromatic scale
Flows wanly from the open window next door.
Maybe Death is sitting there tuning his piano.
And while my life enjoys zestfully eating and fills with gas,
I feel him lean in that requisite little side room,
Where he invisibly reads, rustling the evening paper.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 101 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXX XXXX AXX XXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 706 |
Words | 122 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 3, 3 |
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"One Hour Ater The Dance Of Death" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/14200/one-hour-ater-the-dance-of-death>.
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