Analysis of Jack

Ward Hays 1952 (Memphis, Tn)



On Blackfriar's Bridge
The chippies crawl
A penny for your pleasure
One and all

White Chapel wenches
Run in fear
Any distance
Is still too near

Once with a pox
Posies color the rot
In death, it matters not
What you've got

Blessed are those
Without want
Blessed be he that has
Cursed be he that don't

Where law and order was mostly nil
He practiced death with a surgeon's skill
From a heart that didn't feel
Society paid the bill

Some pointed at the royal line
They were treated quite unkind
Smart ones spoke not a line
Acting like they were blind

A royal carriage fled the scene
Through foggy London streets unseen
Catching him was a waste to start
He freed the world of soiled tarts

No one seemed to really care
What's right is right, what's fair is fair
They hadn't any business there
No word nor whisper was ever shared

I've told my story, I've told it well
No doubt Jack came straight from hell
Many men have made mistakes
In the end, you get what you take

And life just seems to hurry on
We can't replace the time that's gone
Or remember people we have known
And in the end, we're all alone

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Not one of them will confess
No one's responsible for the deaths
And Jack goes laughing home
And Jack goes laughing home


Scheme xaxa xbxb xccc xxxx ddxd efef ggxx hhhx iixx xxjj xxxKK
Poetic Form Tetractys  (27%)
Metre 111 011 0101110 101 11010 101 1010 1111 1101 11001 011101 111 111 011 11111 11111 110101101 110110101 1011101 0100101 11010101 1010101 111101 101101 01010101 11010101 10110111 1101111 1111101 11111111 11010101 111101101 111101111 1111111 1011101 00111111 01111101 1110111 101010111 00011101 01110111 1111101 110100101 011101 011101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,260
Words 248
Sentences 1
Stanzas 11
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5
Lines Amount 45
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 90
Words per stanza (avg) 22

About this poem

Who was Jack?

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Written on May 05, 2014

Submitted by lubigibbons on January 03, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:18 min read
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