Analysis of A Flaw in Our Judicial System
Accusing me of being a thief,
I denied the act and sought relief
from a group of my peers;
scalawags, robbers,
burglars, and other mal-contents
chosen for jury-duty without my consent.
"Deadlocked!" came the jury's reply,
the wise, old judge then asked "Why?"
"We can't tell the truth from a lie," said
the foreman.
"Well, hell!" said the judge, "Neither
can I. But go back in there and deliberate
this man's fate. We ain't got all day to wait."
"Why can't we just flip a coin, your Honor?"
"Well, don't look at me, I don't have one
for you to use," said the judge, as he turned
toward the crowd looking for a donor.
No one rose for the occassion,
so I reached into my pocket and tossed
a coin to the judge,
not realizing it was of great value,
collectable,
antiquited and obscure, rare
as a hen's golden tooth,
stolen from the victim
and part of the loot.
"Never mind" said the judge
to the jury, "It suddenly appears
that the accused has volunteered
to plead for mercy from this court."
The court finds him " Guilty -
by reason of insanity,
with a year-to-serve-and-ponder
the error of his ways
and the court imposes a token fine
to re-imburse this court
for its time and expense,
Thus, this court is now dismissed!"
as he pocketed the quarter
that I haven't seen since.
Scheme | AABXXX CC XD EXX E DXE DXFXCXXXX FBXG HHEXXGX XEX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) Tetractys (30%) |
Metre | 010111001 101010101 101111 110 10010110 101101001101 1101001 0111111 111011011 010 1110110 111110100100 1111111111 1111101110 111111111 1111101111 0101101010 111101 1110111001 01101 1100111110 1 10011 101101 101010 01101 101101 1010110001 1001101 11110111 011110 11010100 10111010 010111 0010100101 11111 111001 1111101 11100010 111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,236 |
Words | 242 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 2, 2, 3, 1, 3, 9, 4, 7, 3 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 96 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on September 05, 2013
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 1 View
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"A Flaw in Our Judicial System" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/64291/a-flaw-in-our-judicial-system>.
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