Analysis of Boys Will Be Boys
Boys will be boys,
But girls will grow up in a world,
Where their body determines their worth,
Wearing a crop top somehow inviting--
The visible thoughts flying
around your head.
They will soon learn to notice
slow eyes slithering, searching, studying.
Boys will be boys,
But women live in a world
where they are touched and grabbed,
Assaulted, stalked, and stabbed,
Silenced while screaming,
Holding in all the stress,
Because if they take one breath,
One flicker in the guard,
One moment of peace,
A man can swoop in
and steal their humanity.
Do I not matter to you?
Am I just here to flatter you?
To love and praise,
While in my head silently praying--
praying for your choice to be easy on me,
For masculine hands to go easy on me,
I have already accepted such a feat,
“So stay quiet, it’ll be quick”
My predetermined fate
apparently isn’t worth trying to save.
Boys will be boys,
But I must learn to
only accept a drink from someone I trust,
But even then, pepper spray and rape whistles are a must
But even then, I don’t know who to trust,
Because in my hour of need,
Boys will be the ones asserting power over me--
Boys will be boys,
But I must soon learn how to
hold my keys between my fingers,
To fight off all the dangers,
But even a hidden knife will never protect me,
Because the cards are stacked against me,
I have learned that I will most likely
Become one of those one in three.
My daily internal conflict:
To be pro-choice,
But to never have a choice
Because I can never be the one with the loudest voice--
That power is left up to the boys.
Scheme | Abxccxxc Abddcxxxxxe ffxceexxxx Afgggxe Afhheeee xiiia |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111 11111001 111001011 100111010 0100110 0111 1111110 1110010100 1111 1101001 111101 010101 10110 100101 0111111 110001 11011 01110 0110100 1111011 11111101 1101 101110010 10111111011 11001111011 11010010101 1110111 10101 0100111011 1111 11111 1001011111 11011010110101 1101111111 01011011 1110101010101 1111 1111111 11101110 1111010 1100101110011 010111011 111111110 01111101 11001010 1111 1110101 01111010110101 110111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,599 |
Words | 340 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 11, 10, 7, 8, 5 |
Lines Amount | 49 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 202 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
About this poem
I was upset about hearing the common phrase "boys will be boys" to make excuses for young boys acting in an inappropriate way. I wanted to point out the stark difference between the way society views boys and girls, as well as bring attention to the many horrors women and girls face on a day to day basis.
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Written on October 17, 2021
Submitted by thefirths1913 on March 28, 2022
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 1:42 min read
- 190 Views
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"Boys Will Be Boys" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/124070/boys-will-be-boys>.
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