Analysis of Belleview Hospital Lobby
I saw a dying man today
on a rolling bed,
a gurney, I think is what it’s called.
He lay perfectly still,
his eyes closed without
any motion in the lids,
while we walked past him
to go to lunch.
It occurred to me
that he probably didn’t even
realize he was lying
in the middle of the lobby.
Perhaps he was dreaming
of when he was young and rode
the A train to Harlem to hear jazz,
Or when he met his wife
in Washington Square Park
forty-three years before her cancer.
I look back toward him;
all I see are the soles of his feet
under a white blanket,
and I hope that he
will not be me
in a few decades when
I miss these days of my youth.
Scheme | XXX XXX AXB XCB CXX XXX AXX BBX X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (28%) |
Metre | 11010101 10101 010111111 111001 11101 1010001 11111 1111 10111 11100110 101110 00101010 011110 1111101 001110111 111111 010011 101101010 111011 111101111 100110 01111 1111 001011 1111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 648 |
Words | 150 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 1 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 54 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 15 |
About this poem
I wrote this poem a while ago because I was disturbed by something I saw in the lobby of a NYC hospital.
Font size:
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Belleview Hospital Lobby" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/160926/belleview-hospital-lobby>.
Discuss this Dan X Ferat poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In