Analysis of The self forgets itself
Kabir 1440 (Banaras) – 1518 (Maghar)
The self forgets itself
as a frantic dog in a glass temple
barks himself to death;
as a lion, seeing a form in the well,
leaps on the image;
as a rutting elephant sticks his tusk
in a crystal boulder.
The monkey has his fistful of sweets
and won't let go. So
from house to house
he gibbers.
Kabir says, parrot-on-a-pole:
who has caught you?
| Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJHKL |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 010101 1010100110 10111 10101001001 11010 101100111 001010 010111011 01111 1111 11 1110101 1111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
| Characters | 336 |
| Words | 67 |
| Sentences | 5 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 13 |
| Lines Amount | 13 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
| Words per line (avg) | 5 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 262 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 65 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 20 sec read
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