Analysis of 'Something For Gregg'
I was somewhere deep in Kansas
on a Triumph 69’
When your song came on the jukebox
and hit me from behind
I was headed for a bad place
and cared for nothing much
When I heard the song ‘Melissa,’
my heart and soul were struck
Entranced, your lyrics captured me
like nothing had before
When you sang about ‘The Gypsy,’
I headed for the door
But something made me turn around
and grab another dime
Ten more times in that diner’s booth,
still lost within your rhyme
Now back inside the bus station
and sleeping on the bench
I scratch your words into the wood,
last dollar gone and spent
My bike outside against the wall,
the kickstand was long gone
And out of gas, my hopes were dashed…
that unrelenting song
Waking up at ten unsettled,
across the street I pushed
The sign said Triumph-BSA,
the owner Mister Cush
He asked, “What’s with your motor,”
I said “Nothing—out of gas
“But worse I’m out of money,
can I sell the bike for cash?
“Would you please just buy my Triumph,
I know it’s old and worn
“It got me here through seven states,
runs great both cold and warm”
“I’ll pay three hundred on the spot,
on that can we agree?”
We walked back up inside his shop,
three bills he handed me
I thought about a bus ride home,
my thumb looked more in line
Facing East on old route 50,
my heart in deep decline
The first big rig that came along
was bound for York Pa.
The driver said “If you like dogs,
I’ll take you on your way”
In York I caught a fast ride out,
two ‘dodgers’ going North
And got back home with hat in hand,
your song to guide me forth
Two years then passed, I met my wife,
four more and our first child
We named her ‘Sweet Melissa,’
her dad back from the wilds
Now forty years have come and gone,
my beard and hair both gray
I owe you Gregg, and always will,
your song, her name—that day
(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)
For Gregg Allman
I sent this to Gregg in May, 2017. It's on his website.
We spent two days together in Richmond Virginia in
a blizzard in 1982.
Scheme | ABXXXXCXDEDEXFXFGXXXXHXIXXAXXXDXBXXXXDXDXJXJIXXKXLXLXXCXHKXK X GXMM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1111010 1010 1111101 011101 11101011 011101 11101010 110101 01110101 110101 11101010 110101 11011101 010101 11101101 110111 11010110 010101 11110101 110101 11110101 01111 01111101 10101 10111010 010111 011101 010101 1101110 1110111 1111110 1110111 11111110 111101 11111101 111101 11110101 111101 11110111 111101 11010111 111101 101111 110101 01111101 11111 01011111 111111 01110111 110101 01111101 111111 11111111 1101011 1101010 011101 11011101 110111 1111011 110111 0100101 1110 11111011111 11110100100100 0100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,042 |
Words | 412 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 60, 1, 4 |
Lines Amount | 65 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 509 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 128 |
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"'Something For Gregg'" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/174227/%27something-for-gregg%27>.
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