Analysis of On a Chair Outside a Church



On a chair outside a church
I wait in anticipation
the chill in the air touches my face.
Reminding me it's Fall and not quite Winter.

I wait to see the first morning light land
on the leaves of orange across from me.
And as it does,
I ponder the reasons for change, and the seasons of life,
or rather the season of change and the reason for life.
I contemplate the complexities of this universe
and the simplicities of a song sang by a sparrow.
On a chair outside a church

As I wait in anticipation
for a few hundred people about to walk through those doors.
I've done all I needed to do.
I've turned on the lights and I've heated the rooms.
I now rest with the work complete.
Everything is ready and no one is here as I wait
On a chair outside a church.

I think of those about to arrive,
how they'll see me and smile
yet not know that I was here before the sunlight.
A thankless job for a humble man,
I now realize and know what Hayden meant by
loves austere and lonely office as I sit
On a chair outside a church.


Scheme Abxx xxxccxxA bxxxxxA xxxxxxA
Poetic Form
Metre 1011101 1100010 010011011 01011101110 1111011011 1011100111 0111 11001011001011 11001011001011 110001001110 00110111010 1011101 11100010 10110100111111 11111011 11101011001 11110101 1011001111111 1011101 111101101 111101 11111110101 010110101 11100111011 10101010111 1011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,021
Words 222
Sentences 13
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 8, 7, 7
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 198
Words per stanza (avg) 51

About this poem

This Poem was written on a cold Fall morning on a chair outside a church. It tells the thoughts of a facilities manager on a Sunday before church begins.

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Written on November 14, 2021

Submitted on December 02, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:08 min read
8

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