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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"Lightning Switch" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/100789/lightning-switch>.
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