Analysis of Open Sewers, Bloated Rats



Dizzy drunkards, shady bars and vomit on the street
Vacant houses, stolen cars
and midnight scorching heat
Battered spouses, shattered trust and fear lurks in the heart
Idyllic love turned to dust
and bleakness works its part
Jaded children, gang warfare and truancy from school
Forlorn mothers in despair
and fathers playing pool
Homeless people, hopeless stares and countless broken dreams
Market carts push their affairs
and many silent screams
Tawdry storefronts, sex for sale and needle marks in arms
Social programs simply fail
and desolation harms
Open sewers, bloated rats and squalor everywhere
Starving dogs and turgid cats
and fetor in the air


Scheme ABACDCEFEGHGIJIFKF
Poetic Form
Metre 1010101010101 1010101 01101 1010101011001 0101111 010111 101011010011 0110001 010101 1010101010101 1011101 010101 101111010101 101101 00101 101010101010 1010101 01001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 637
Words 104
Sentences 1
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 544
Words per stanza (avg) 104
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Submitted on February 05, 2010

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
2

Wallace Dean LaBenne

Professor, therapist, author and poet. more…

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