Analysis of Alfred Moir
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
Why was I not devoured by self-contempt,
And rotted down by indifference
And impotent revolt like Indignation Jones?
Why, with all of my errant steps
Did I miss the fate of Willard Fluke?
And why, though I stood at Burchard's bar,
As a sort of decoy for the house to the boys
To buy the drinks, did the curse of drink
Fall on me like rain that runs off,
Leaving the soul of me dry and clean?
And why did I never kill a man
Like Jack McGuire?
But instead I mounted a little in life,
And I owe it all to a book I read.
But why did I go to Mason City,
Where I chanced to see the book in a window,
With its garish cover luring my eye?
And why did my soul respond to the book,
As I read it over and over?
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101101 010110100 01000110101 11111101 111011101 01111111 101101101101 110110111 11111111 100111101 011110101 1101 10111001001 0111110111 1111111010 11111010010 1110101011 0111101101 111110010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 689 |
Words | 149 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 19 |
Lines Amount | 19 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 534 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 147 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 29, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 103 Views
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"Alfred Moir" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8499/alfred-moir>.
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