Analysis of Old Man Eating Alone in a Chinese Restaurant
I am glad I resisted the temptation,
if it was a temptation when I was young,
to write a poem about an old man
eating alone at a corner table in a Chinese restaurant.
I would have gotten it all wrong
thinking: the poor bastard, not a friend in the world
and with only a book for a companion.
He'll probably pay the bill out of a change purse.
So glad I waited all these decades
to record how hot and sour the hot and sour
soup is here at Chang's this afternoon
and how cold the Chinese beer in a frosted glass.
And my book—José Saramago's Blindness
as it turns out—is so absorbing that I look up
from its escalating horrors only
when I am stunned by one of his gleaming sentences.
And I should mention the light
that falls through the big windows this time of day
italicizing everything it touches—
the plates and teapots, the immaculate tablecloths,
as well as the soft brown hair of the waitress
in the white blouse and short black skirt,
the one who is smiling now as she bears a cup of rice
and shredded beef with garlic to my favorite table in the corner.
Scheme | AXXX XXAX XBXX CXXD XXDX CXXB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110100010 11100101111 1101001111 1001101010000110 11110111 100110101001 01100110010 110010111011 111101101 1011101001010 11111101 011001100101 0111110 1111110101111 111001010 1111111110100 0111001 11101101111 110110 01010010010 11101111010 00110111 01111011110111 010111011100100010 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,072 |
Words | 217 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 140 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Written on 2007
Submitted by Drone232 on August 21, 2022
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 155 Views
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"Old Man Eating Alone in a Chinese Restaurant" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/134623/old-man-eating-alone-in-a-chinese-restaurant>.
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