Analysis of Atomic Ale
He never had to go to Hiroshima proper.
Ride from the airbase was six miles as the crow flies
And all the supplies he was sent to procure could be
Found on the outskirts, well beyond the blast radius
He was told at the time and all sincerely believed. No cause of action possibly could lie now, all these
Years later, he tells himself at his local pub Shelling out a couple of bucks – Highway Robbery!
– So his great grandson can lift back a pint and chug his
First legal cold one. Suddenly, the old veteran’s eyes
Are filled with the amber glow of recollecting why His buddies always wanted in on the supply run To just outside the blast radius: the brewery
That withstood the concussive force of an atom bomb
To brew another day. That had to have been the best beer
He had ever tasted. Irradiated? Maybe.
Maybe. And what if it was radioactive?
What If it was what had watered the seed of Death in him?
The Seed was there already, and the things he’d survived….
The things he had survived. The number of times Death had
Skirted him by and all the life he had lived since then….All the Life.
Who would sue for that after all this time? Who? He decides to shell out more than a couple bucks On himself, asks the barkeep, “What’s your best brew?
Money is no object.”
His namesake overhears, overjoyed,
Sees the bartender deliver a tawny-full stein.
“It’s beautiful,” great-grandpa says, “What do you call it?”
The brew master, standing at the register, answers:
“Atomic Ale. It’s got quite a bitter kick to it.” Great-grandpa retorts, “I bet it does.”
Great-grandson lifts his own in salute.
“To Life,” he says. “To Life,” the old vet replies, “It’s enough.” Great-grandson nods in agreement and smiles.
Scheme | ABCDECFBCGHCIJKLMNOPQRSTUV |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111101010 11011111011 0100111110111 110110101100 11110101010011111010011111 110110111101101010111100 111111101011 11011100011001 1110101101011101100100111111011000100 10101111101 11010111111011 111010010010 10011110010 11111110011101 0111010001101 0111010101111 1011010111111101 11111101111111111101011011010111 101110 1110101 101001001011 110011111111 0110101010010 010111101011111011111 11111001 11111101101101111001001 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 1,789 |
Words | 342 |
Sentences | 29 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 26 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 51 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,316 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 311 |
About this poem
In honor of the late Deacon Decoss and based, loosely, on a personal experience he related
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Written on March 28, 2014
Submitted by mikeymautner on July 12, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:42 min read
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"Atomic Ale" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/133174/atomic-ale>.
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