Analysis of The boxer
Jeff Patry 1976 (Nebraska)
Ass over tea kettle
He falls and he falls.
Ass over backward
He flops and he sprawls.
But he rises again to continue the fight
Jab, jab, uppercut – left, left, right.
A dervish of whirling,
He swings and he swings.
A twirl of a skirmish,
He darts and he zings.
But try as he may to do what he might,
Pow! To his jaw. Out go the lights.
A sack of potatoes.
He drops to the ground.
A sack full of sorrow,
He’s lost, he stays down.
| Scheme | XAXA BB XXXA BX XXXX |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 110110 11011 11010 11011 111001101001 111111 010110 11011 011010 11011 1111111111 11111101 011010 11101 011110 11111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
| Characters | 436 |
| Words | 104 |
| Sentences | 11 |
| Stanzas | 5 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 2, 4, 2, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 16 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 64 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
About this poem
This is a comment on the futility of trying.
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Written on January 17, 2023
Submitted by jpat6000 on January 17, 2023
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 31 sec read
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"The boxer" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/150888/the-boxer>.
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