Analysis of Black Prism
Holding idyllic Kodak photographs of my
middle class Long Island family,
my mother's golden beehive elegantly
arranged on her head.
In the mournful 1960's,
so many black and white newspaper
photos and newsreels of the Vietnam War.
Humid jungles, rice paddies,
youthful U.S. soldiers,
Charlie was an elusive enemy
of the shadows in nightmares.
Many American troops only teenagers,
their souls bled with exhaustion.
My mother and I embraced weeping
in the loss of the ones who returned
fallen,
for MIA, POW,
and for others broken in body
and spirit.
How can we celebrate our birthdays
when they lost their's.
Night's lorn dispersed in a
black prism of grief's remembrance.
Father of Light,
they became Your's
and I will not forget -
war is a storming
wanton wretch of a bastard.
Scheme | XAAXBXX XCAXCD EXDXAXXB XXXBXEX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001011011 101110100 1101011000 01101 00101 11010110 10110011 1010110 10110 1011010100 10101 10010011010 1111010 110010110 001101101 10 1101 011010010 010 11110101 1111 110100 11011010 1011 1011 011101 11010 1011010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 779 |
Words | 150 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 6, 8, 7 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 155 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
About this poem
Memories of the 1960's and bereavement of the Vietnam War. (I did not select the word Celebration as one of the poem genres, and I can't get rid of it)
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"Black Prism" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/154347/black-prism>.
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