Analysis of Anxieties of Corrupted Times
Suleiman al-fulayyih 1950 (Hammad desert)
…and tonight, Mother, I dreamt of winds sweeping the pasture,
quelling my horses,
expelling my deer,
publicly lashing me with a snake,
binding me behind my folk’s tents,
quenching my thirst, when I do, with my blood,
and feeding me defeat.
Tonight, Mother, I saw headless horses
invading my people,
and a woman up on the banner
crying out my name;
naked, drenched with blood,
and clouds galloping over our blood-red lands
raining down on our tribesmen with acid water and venom breath.
Mother, I saw you bereaved
scattering sand
among the dead,
and gathering crumbs of meat.
I saw a crow as big as night,
its cawing surrounding me,
it kept circling the tent, ignoring me,
then snatched my baby
and flew away, leaving me
wallowing in the dark sand,
losing my mind.
I saw lions roaring whispers.
I saw dogs howling at the sun.
I saw rabid wolves.
I saw an army of black ants on the roses.
I saw intoxicated goats.
And tonight, Mother, I dreamt of long tamarisk branches
growing out of the horses’ carcasses,
sprouting into yellow flowers
diffusing a stony scent,
entangling like antlers,
diverging like chronic sorrow,
and were chewed by the night’s molars,
then vomited in the face of the shining dawn,
in the face of these sordid times,
and spat on this generation’s face.
I saw big cities running across the desert’s mirage,
being chased by exhausted fear,
being hunted by a terrifying sickness,
and crushed to pieces by the demon of alienation and vice.
I saw falcons, cameleers and cunning warriors up in the city’s heights,
and I saw the blood of its people
dripping from the talons of an eagle.
I saw a vulture stealing a palace.
I saw a crow eating a tiger.
I saw snakes on the horizon
painting rainbows.
I saw faces on balconies
wearing ghostly masks.
And I saw brains on the streets
absorbing salty toasts.
Mother, is this a nightmare or an illusion?
Or is it something else that’s taking over, or
is this desolate insomnia just a dream?
It’s what I felt while I was awake resting my head
against the outer rope
and touching the grass,
which stung me like needles this grass
grazed… this rope grazed my throat
as it stretched from knot to knot to the center pole.
Mother, I dreamt tonight that my eyes were folded,
the land of my people pillaged,
and the heads of my men mounted on the wall;
but I saw you, Mother, not crying… because tears are crucified
and the center pole is tied up in knots.
Scheme | ABCXXDEBFAXDXXXGHEXIIIIGXJKXLXBLJXJXBXXXXCMX XFFMAKXXXXX KXXHXNNXX DXXXX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 00110111110010 10110 01011 100101101 10101111 1011111111 010101 0110111010 010110 001011010 10111 10111 011001010111 10111010110100101 1011101 1001 0101 0100111 11011111 110101 11100010101 11110 0101101 1000011 1011 11101010 11110101 11101 111101111010 1101001 00110111110010 1011010100 10011010 0100101 010110 01011010 0011011 1100110101 00111101 01110101 11110100101001 10110101 10101010010 0111010101001001 1110101010010011 011011110 1010101110 1101010010 110110010 11110010 101 11101100 10101 0111101 010101 10110111010 111101110101 111000100101 1111111011011 010101 01001 11111011 111111 111111110101 101101111010 01111010 00111110101 111110110011110 0010111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,358 |
Words | 433 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 44, 11, 9, 5 |
Lines Amount | 69 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 473 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 108 |
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Submitted on January 29, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:10 min read
- 16 Views
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"Anxieties of Corrupted Times" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/61210/anxieties-of-corrupted-times>.
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