Analysis of Who Will Not Be Home
I can’t wake from the nightmare you are dead.
I dream of you
smelling the forest on your skin,
have conversations we never had,
like last night’s conversation on the history of our valley;
who owned the land before,
what they farmed,
your Washingtonian twang posing questions
as you do when your country mind ponders and dreams,
holding my hand as you drove
your thumb brushing against my palm.
It was Halloween, the smell of fallen leaves and wood smoke
combined in the car with your immediate scent,
strong like it has been every year.
We talked about who will stay and who will not be home,
who will open the door.
You pulled into our driveway in the afternoon light
and then asked our son to park the car.
Now it morning and I wake still to winter’s chill,
an empty bed,
fall still eight months away;
your absence from my dream a sharp pressure,
my lungs emptied of you.
I throw my arm over my eyes
trying to will myself back into the dream
but I already know the futility of it;
there is no more conversations with you
You now exist only in pictures, in poems
and dreams.
And I must live within this nightmare.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOFPQRASTBUVWBXIY |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (27%) |
Metre | 111101111 1111 10010111 10101101 1110101010011010 110101 111 1010011010 111111011001 1011111 11100111 1101011101011 010011101001 111111001 1101111011111 111001 110110100011 0111011101 111001111101 1101 111101 1101110110 111011 11111011 1011110101 1101010010011 111101011 110110010010 01 01110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,094 |
Words | 208 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 30 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 882 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 208 |
About this poem
Published in The Widow's Handbook. The Kent State Press.2014 From Ariel's Waiting Room Collection.
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Written on February 26, 2011
Submitted by Ariel on September 19, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:02 min read
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"Who Will Not Be Home" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/109935/who-will-not-be-home>.
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