Analysis of Lightning Switch

John Jessup Kennan 1953 (Pomona)



Lightning wears a striking mask
The deepest blue I ever knew
Lights white the night, takes its flight
If only it had stayed as long as you

A scar shaped like a lightning bolt
Thunder echoes, calls the blue
But blue is unresponsive now
If only it had stayed as brief as you

Tell the thunder to shut its mouth
Stick your finger in the socket
Prepare yourself for the scars it leaves
Or keep your hands inside your pockets

Before the lightning switch, we danced
And danced in the switch thereafter
It left a scar shaped like a smile
And the thundering of laughter

Call down lightning to a high-wire act
Balance a tightrope telephone line
Vampire electrodes in the neck
Leave telling scars in their design

Tell the thunder to shut its mouth
Stick your finger in the socket
Prepare yourself for the scars it leaves
Or keep your hands inside your pockets

The pain of that scar has healed now
But sparks shoot from my eyes
Hearts generate a gigahertz
The tip of a tongue electrifies

This jerking highwire dance we do
High voltage, spasmodically
Takes its flight with a fingertip flip
So dance me on, love, switch with me

Tell the thunder to shut its mouth
Stick your finger in the socket
Prepare yourself for the scars it leaves
Or keep your hands inside your pockets

© John Kennan 3-12-14


Scheme xaxa xaba CDEF xgxg xhxh CDEF biei ajxj CDEF x
Poetic Form
Metre 1010101 01011101 1101111 1101111111 01110101 1010101 1110101 1101111111 10101111 11100010 010110111 111101110 01010111 01001010 11011101 00100110 1110101101 1001101 10010001 11010101 10101111 11100010 010110111 111101110 01111111 111111 11001 01101010 1101111 1100100 11110101 11111111 10101111 11100010 010110111 111101110 110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,280
Words 236
Sentences 1
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) 104
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted by rankstranger7 on May 24, 2021

Modified on April 04, 2023

1:10 min read
9

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