The Lonely Man on the Cliff



The Lonely Man on the Cliff.

The lonely man on the cliff,
Looking down at eternity.
Maybe he’ll slip, or dip his toe
Into the forever water below,
Or maybe he’ll plant a loving kiss,
And maybe then he’ll know,
That time can stop, where worries rot,
If just for a moment or so.

At slack water, the fisherman’s daughter,
At the lonely man on the cliff stares,
With happiness, and bliss, and a certain laissez-faire,
Then maybe a shot from a careless gun,
Or maybe he trips, and down the rock he slides,
Whilst eternity drifts away,
With the ebbing of the tide,
And the setting of the sun.

About this poem

Inspired by the Pelle Swedlund painting of the same title.

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Submitted by charlesmcfadzen on January 09, 2024

38 sec read
137

Quick analysis:

Scheme A Axbbxbxb xxxcxxxc
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 597
Words 127
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 1, 8, 8

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    "The Lonely Man on the Cliff" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/178326/the-lonely-man-on-the-cliff>.

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