Analysis of Dilemma
He stands frozen in my memory,
one foot in the drifting boat
and one foot on the dock
with his balance lying in between.
With only a second to decide
his commitment: to the dock
or the seaward moving boat.
I didn’t notice earlier
just where he had been,
if he was coming onto land
or going out to sea.
I saw only his dilemma
without knowing his desire,
but it was clear to me
the ocean would soon claim him
if he failed to quickly act.
Scheme | ABCDECBFGHAIFAJK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111001100 1100101 011101 111010001 11001011 1010101 1010101 1110100 11111 11110101 110111 11101010 01101010 111111 0101111 1111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 424 |
Words | 87 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 340 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 88 |
About this poem
simple observation becomes electric
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Written on 1998
Submitted by Snodeel on June 04, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 26 sec read
- 7 Views
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"Dilemma" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/101818/dilemma>.
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