Analysis of The Bar
Joe Strickland 1986 (Hobbysville, SC)
The bar smelled
Of stale cigarettes,
Cheap cologne
And spilled beer.
The air was thick
With the sound of voices
Drowning each other out,
Of pool balls colliding
And the jukebox spitting out
Some old Hank Williams tune.
It was the kind of place
Where old men came to die,
Where their liver was worn out
And their lungs blackened
From a lifetime of smoking.
The same old men,
Telling the same old jokes
To the same old men
Laughing at the same old punchlines.
I sat at the bar,
Nursing a glass of whiskey
And trying to forget
About my problems.
The bills were piling up,
The woman I loved was gone,
And I was barely holding on to my job.
But the booze helped.
It was my salvation,
My escape
From this cruel world.
The bartender,
A gruff old man
With a bushy mustache,
Gave me a nod.
"Another one, eh?" he said,
Pouring me another shot.
I downed it in one gulp
And nodded back.
"Keep 'em coming, Ed," I said.
"I need to forget."
He chuckled
And wiped down the counter
With a dirty rag.
"You and me both, brother."
I stared into my glass,
Watching the amber liquid
Swirl around.
The world outside
was cold and harsh,
Full of broken dreams
And shattered hopes.
But in here,
In this dark,
Dingy bar,
I could forget about it all.
The hours ticked by
And I kept drinking,
Until the darkness outside
Was replaced
By the light of day.
I stumbled out into the street,
My head throbbing
And my pockets empty.
But for a few moments,
I had forgotten
About my troubles.
For a few moments,
I had felt alive.
And that was enough
To keep me going
For another day.
Scheme | XAXXXXBCBXXDBXC EXEA FGHXXXXXIXX JXXXKX XXKH XJXJ XXXLXXXXXFX DCLXMXCGNIXNX XCM |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011 1101 101 011 0111 101110 101101 111010 001101 111101 110111 111111 1110111 01110 101110 0111 100111 10111 1010111 11101 1001110 010101 01110 010101 0101111 01110101111 1011 111010 101 11101 010 0111 10101 1101 0101111 1010101 111011 0101 1110111 11101 110 011010 10101 101110 110111 1001010 101 0111 1101 11101 0101 101 011 101 11010111 01011 01110 0101011 11 10111 11010101 1110 011010 110110 11010 01110 10110 11101 01101 11110 10101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,611 |
Words | 373 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 4, 11, 6, 4, 4, 11, 13, 3 |
Lines Amount | 71 |
Letters per line (avg) | 17 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 133 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Written on May 28, 2023
Submitted by JoeStrickland on May 28, 2023
Modified by JoeStrickland on May 30, 2023
- 1:51 min read
- 16 Views
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"The Bar" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/160313/the-bar>.
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