Analysis of Last Rites
John Jessup Kennan 1953 (Pomona)
I saw your picture in The Times
Taking the corpse for a walk
Lack of conviction in the crimes
Render speechless the ways we talk
I saw you at the park today
Taking the corpse for a run
Celebrating triumphs in degrees
Academically already won
The squatter's last rites are the only rights left
Left bereft between lines in remainders
So for our next date, dear, how about dinner
And a Desuppression Chamber?
I saw you out on the bypass
Taking the corpse for a spin
You with the wind blowing your hair back
He with that perfect grin
I saw you down at the Dream Cafe
Taking the corpse to dinner for free
Surreality with a side of beef
Dream service with a gratuity
The squatter's last rites are the only rights left
Left bereft between lines in remainders
So for our next date, dear, how about dinner
And a Desuppression Chamber?
I saw you onstage last Saturday night
Doing standup with the corpse
That dummy never says a thing
'Cause a corpse is a corpse, of corpse
You move his mouth in perfect time
You script all the words he will say
And you give him all the punchlines
You're so generous that way
The squatter's last rites are the only rights left
Left bereft between lines in remainders
So for our next date, dear, how about dinner
And a Desuppression Chamber?
© John Kennan 11-25-16
Scheme | abab cdxd EAFF xgxg chxh EAFF xixi xcac EAFF d |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110001 1001101 11010001 10100111 11110101 1001101 10010001 01000101 0111101011 10101101 111011110110 00110 1111101 1001101 110110111 111011 111110101 100111011 110111 110100100 0111101011 10101101 111011110110 00110 111111001 101101 11010101 10110111 11110011 11101111 0111101 1110011 0111101011 10101101 111011110110 00110 110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,254 |
Words | 238 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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"Last Rites" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/100766/last-rites>.
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