Analysis of "Give A Man A Fish".



"Give a man a fish
and you've fed him
for a day"; but teach
him how to fish and
he would depend on
that skill to feed
himself and his family.

The family would
extend the gesture to
others in the village
and be able to create
a self sufficient
living community, having
all their needs met.

The community would grow
an economy that they
could depend on for many
years to come, taking
care of themselves and
their children, who
would come after them.

An independent society
would have been formed;
and it would leave a
legacy fit to emulate
by their children's
children, because one
man had set a good example.

By teaching another man
how to fish, he had fed
him for life; and not only
him, but his whole house-
hold, and that would continue
throughout the ages,
till the end of time.


Scheme XXXAXXB XCXDXEX XXBEACX BXXDXXX XXBXCXX
Poetic Form Tetractys  (31%)
Metre 10101 0111 10111 11110 11011 1111 0101100 01001 010101 100010 0110101 01010 10010010 1111 0010011 1010011 1011110 11110 11010 1101 11101 10100100 1111 01110 1001110 1110 10011 11101010 1100101 111111 1110110 11111 1011010 01010 10111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 763
Words 149
Sentences 7
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 7, 7, 7
Lines Amount 35
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 123
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on April 19, 2015

Modified on March 05, 2023

45 sec read
13

Emmanuel Bandoh

I have been a poet for the past 30 years or so. My background is in communications, working mostly for nondescript media outlets. I have lived in New York City since 1972, but now reside at Mount Vernon, NY. My passion for poetry started when I was very young, when my mother used to read me bedtime stories. She, however, wanted me to become an engineer, operating trains; but I chose other options, with being a poet as one of them. more…

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