Analysis of villanelle of patient lament
oh, i’m afraid my patience is spent
for the world has too heavy a hand,
and it is the past i’ve come to lament.
old days of sunlit skies and hours content
i am a hungry body aching for love without remand,
but i’m afraid that patience is already spent.
if your patience were a thing of torment
i would recognise it, as the cheek knows the hand
love’s absence echoes, wailing in red lament.
recall the days i’ve darkened your door, bent
half over, swimming in brine and unable to stand.
you said quick - “i’m afraid my patience is spent”
didn’t you? quick to flee, these fickle creatures we pretend
to be; in love and unconditional on demand.
we must become figments to love, i lament. i lament.
sweet, i remember the touch of love once meant
for me, and me alone - though memory is cruel and
i’m afraid my patience is long spent.
such is the past i’ve come to lament.
Scheme | ABA ABA ABA ABA XBA AXAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111011 101111001 0110111101 1111101010 110101010110101 110111010101 111000111 1111101101 11010100101 101110111 1101001001011 11110111011 1111111010101 110100100101 11011011101101 11010011111 11010111001100 101110111 110111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 894 |
Words | 179 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4 |
Lines Amount | 19 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 111 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
About this poem
I wrote this poem to try my hand at writing a villanelle, attempting to create an image of a couple in the last legs of their relationship. Even painting the idea of the narrator being unreliable, because it's only from the perspective of one partner in the relationship. Are they at fault, or are they the victim? Are both partners at fault for the relationship falling apart? Whose to say. They've lost their patience.
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"villanelle of patient lament" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/124435/villanelle-of-patient-lament>.
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