Analysis of An extraordinary tale
An extraordinary tale
A poem by Abdullah Al Mamun
The creases on your face tell me
You have grimaced in pain
For centuries.
Your huge hand and rough skin,
The dirt beneath your finger nails
tell me you've been on the cotton field.
Your fat neck tells me you have been lynched
over and over from the old tree,
Because you wouldn't say "My name is Toby".
Your strong chest and thick skin on the back tell me
you can take on a few hundred lashes easily,
And yet say" My name is Kunta Kinte".
The smudge on your face,
Sorry, my mistake,
God has smudged you in the first place,
All over,
So that you can become a slave.
You look down in front of your masters.
You have forgotten to look up.
Perhaps you have never seen the beautiful spring sky.
Your grey hair and frail body tell me
you've lived an extra ordinarily long life
So that you can tell us
your extra ordinarily long and sad tale.
Scheme | AB CBXBXD XCCCCD EXEXX XXX CXXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101001 01011011 01011111 111001 1100 111011 01011101 111110101 111111111 100101011 01110111110 11101110111 1111011010100 01111111 01111 10101 11110011 110 11110101 111011110 11010111 0111101010011 111011011 11110010011 111111 11001001011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 896 |
Words | 197 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 6, 6, 5, 3, 4 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 115 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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"An extraordinary tale" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/176344/an-extraordinary-tale>.
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