Analysis of LONG

Ray Eden 1959 (Hackney)



Long outstayed his welcome
The clock could not keep up
As tired tried with bloodshot eyes
To act like long was a surprise

And yawning feigned attraction
As long had missed his bus
Old never mind was being kind
Like this was all some grand design

But long was getting longer
He'd made a friend of stretched
Who made so much from such small things
That it left us all a-wondering

Stretch said “Hi” to comfy
Who poured just one last drink
But long was getting quite pie-eyed
And he had shots stacked on one side

You know I must be going
Then made his presence known
But long had gone and got Pete Tong
And he had welcomed on and on

On and on were at it
With seamless streams of sound
As long morphed into longest
We all dabbled with dishonest

It's not like we were lying
As we'd only stretched the truth
We introduced excuses
But he proved to be useless

Long outstayed his welcome
We welcomed in the dawn
And then we all met boring
Who soon had us all snoring.


Scheme Axbb xcxx xxxd xxee dxxx xxff dxxc Axdd
Poetic Form
Metre 11110 011111 1101111 11111001 0101010 111111 11011101 11111101 1111010 110111 11111111 111110100 111110 111111 11110111 01111111 1111110 111101 11110111 01110101 101011 110111 1110110 11101010 1111010 1110101 101010 1111110 11110 110001 0111110 1111110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 975
Words 195
Sentences 2
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 96
Words per stanza (avg) 23

About this poem

It's about people who outstay their welcome, completely oblivious to body language and subtle hints from their hosts.

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Written on December 27, 2021

Submitted by rayeden on December 29, 2021

Modified on April 19, 2023

59 sec read
7

Ray Eden

I have been writing poetry, prose and lyrics since my teens, and I'll be 63 in January. I live on The Isle of Sheppey in Kent, UK. more…

All Ray Eden poems | Ray Eden Books

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    Quiz

    Are you a poetry master?

    »
    AA Milne wrote: "A bear, however hard he tries..."
    A "has very very tired eyes"
    B "can never stop telling lies"
    C "stinks and attracts the flies"
    D "grows tubby with no exercise"