Analysis of The Blues Hotel



Two Jacksons or
Four sawbucks
Up front—$40.
No credit cards, no I.D.;
Beyond, beneath,
Battered neon lights
The Blues Hotel
Weathered time’s ravages
Struck cords of commerce as
Hookers dispense advice
Like ATM machines—
Service for a price.

Soiled linen, wafer thin sheets, feel and
Look like pillow drool on flax
A ceramic throne, standard toilet,
Sits on splintered two-by-fours,
Wax ring smashing like a plum
Slightly sinking like a rock in thick mud when seated.
Yellow halos ripple over textured ridges,
Plaster summits, on the
Sparkling stucco ceiling where
Snow seeps through the roof
Dripping tears into a closet
That seldom houses luggage

Here on Colfax, cops draw down on
Wendy’s customers—mistake naive
Travelers as “King’s Table” players—
Denver’s whorehouse clientele,
Crack den magistrates.
One’s next-door neighbors’
Fists pound paper-thin walls like
Meat tenderizers pummeling flesh or
Jack hammers cracking concrete;
Rattling door handles twist, turn
Voices chant incantations, grunt outside
Demand immediate admittance—
Ready to fix a need, a place to
Tie down before daylight resumes
Kickin’ flop house reality,
The Blues Hotel’s legacy, above,
Below, and on all sides of every room.


Scheme ABXXXBCBBBBB XBDBXXBXXXDX XXBCBBXAXXXBXBXXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1101 11 11 110111 0101 10101 0101 101100 111101 100101 1101 10101 110101110 1110111 001011010 1110111 1110101 1010101011110 101010101010 101010 1010101 11101 10101010 1101010 1111111 1100011 100111010 1101 1110 11110 1110111 1110011 1101001 1011011 1011111 010100010 101101011 1101101 11110 010110001 01011111001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,211
Words 186
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 12, 12, 17
Lines Amount 41
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 323
Words per stanza (avg) 62
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Submitted on July 30, 2019

Modified on March 14, 2023

55 sec read
58

Sterling Warner

A Pushcart Prize Nominee, Sterling Warner’s poems and short fiction have appeared in dozens of international literary magazines, journals, and anthologies such as FLATBUSH REVIEW, SCARLET LEAF REVIEW, and STREET LIT: REPRESENTING THE URBAN LANDSCAPE. Additionally, Warner also has written SIX (6) collections of poetry: WITHOUT WHEELS, SHADOWCAT, EDGES, MEMENTO MORI: A CHAPBOOK REDUX, RAGS & FEATHERS and SERPENT'S TOOTH: POEMS (2021). In August of 2020, he published MASQUES: FLASH FICTION & SHORT STORIES. more…

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