Analysis of the trash men

Charles Bukowski 1920 (Andernach) – 1994 (San Pedro)



here they come
these guys
grey truck
radio playing

they are in a hurry

it’s quite exciting:
shirt open
bellies hanging out

they run out the trash bins
roll them out to the fork lift
and then the truck grinds it upward
with far too much sound . . .

they had to fill out application forms
to get these jobs
they are paying for homes and
drive late model cars

they get drunk on Saturday night

now in the Los Angeles sunshine
they run back and forth with their trash bins

all that trash goes somewhere

and they shout to each other

then they are all up in the truck
driving west toward the sea

none of them know
that I am alive

REX DISPOSAL CO.


Scheme XXAB C BXX DXXX XXXX X XD X X AC EX E
Poetic Form
Metre 111 11 11 1010 110010 11010 110 10101 111011 1111011 01011110 11111 111110101 1111 1110110 11101 11111001 10011001 111011111 11111 0111110 11111001 1010101 1111 11101 10101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 616
Words 124
Sentences 4
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 4, 1, 3, 4, 4, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 42
Words per stanza (avg) 11
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Submitted by RobertHaigh on June 19, 2020

Modified on April 24, 2023

37 sec read
117

Charles Bukowski

Henry Charles Bukowski August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-born American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and beautiful economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles.[4] His work addresses the ordinary lives of rich Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books. more…

All Charles Bukowski poems | Charles Bukowski Books

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