Analysis of One Flesh
Elizabeth Jennings 1926 (Boston) – 2001
Lying apart now, each in a separate bed,
He with a book, keeping the light on late,
She like a girl dreaming of childhood,
All men elsewhere, it is as if they wait
Some new event: the book he holds unread,
Her eyes fixed on the shadows overhead.
Tossed up like flotsam from a former passion,
How cool they lie. They hardly ever touch,
Or if they do it is like a confession
Of having little feeling, or too much.
Chastity faces them, a destination
For which their whole lives were a preparation.
Strangely apart, yet strangely close together,
Silence between them like a thread to hold
And not wind in. And time itself's a feather
Touching them gently. Do they know they're old,
These two who are my father and my mother
Whose fire from which I came, has now grown cold?
Scheme | ABXBAA CDCDCC EFEFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10011100101 1101100111 11011011 111111111 1101011101 011101101 11110101010 1111110101 11111110010 1101010111 1001010010 1111100010 10011101010 1001110111 0110011010 1011011111 11111100110 11011111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 758 |
Words | 145 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 201 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 44 sec read
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"One Flesh" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55118/one-flesh>.
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