Complaint
William Carlos Williams 1883 (Rutherford) – 1963 (Rutherford)
They call me and I go.
It is a frozen road
past midnight, a dust
of snow caught
in the rigid wheeltracks.
The door opens.
I smile, enter and
shake off the cold.
Here is a great woman
on her side in the bed.
She is sick,
perhaps vomiting,
perhaps laboring
to give birth to
a tenth child. Joy! Joy!
Night is a room
darkened for lovers,
through the jalousies the sun
has sent one golden needle!
I pick the hair from her eyes
and watch her misery
with compassion.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 27 sec read
- 587 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDEEFGHIJKKLMNEHOEPH |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 467 |
Words | 92 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 22 |
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"Complaint" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/39650/complaint>.
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