Analysis of the bluebird
Charles Bukowski 1920 (Andernach) – 1994 (San Pedro)
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s
in there.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there,
so don’t be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he’s singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?
Scheme | ABCxdE ABxxxfadg ABCxxhxfxh ABbxxgdx xxcxxaxxexaeE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010111 1111 111111 111011110 1110001 1 1010111 1111 1111011001 011 0010010 001001 1011 1 01 1010111 1111 111111 11 1111111 11 111110 1 11111110 10 1010111 1111 11110110111 1101 1101 1111111 111 1 11111 1110010 0111111 1 0110101 1 110 101 011011 101 1111 11 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic dimeter |
Characters | 910 |
Words | 191 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 9, 10, 8, 13 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 15 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 139 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 38 |
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"the bluebird" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/53674/the-bluebird>.
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