Analysis of Gift of the Purling Sea

William Goresko 1951 (Philadelphia, PA) – 2008 (Willow Grove, PA)



You burrow in the ocean's sandy floor
Far from the cry of the clamoring crowd
And take your meals within shadow of shore
Ensconced inside your corrugated shroud.
But deep within your delicate flesh
A bit of sand has fashioned a home
To stealthily grind and grate and press
To jam between your body and bone.
You welcome the trespasser into your gut
And layer it slowly in lustrous sheen
Until that grain so rude and rough
Becomes a smooth and shining dream.
If only we could change and ascend
Above all the things that rip and rend.


Scheme ABABCDEFGHIJKB
Poetic Form
Metre 1100010101 1101101001 011101111 010111001 110111001 011111001 1110101 110111001 110010111 0101100101 01111101 01010101 110111001 011011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 520
Words 98
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 430
Words per stanza (avg) 98
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Submitted by cuwoodford on April 29, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

29 sec read
4

William Goresko

William Goresko was an avid landscape photographer, a lover of backpacking and the outdoors, a voracious reader of classical literature and ardent fan of classical music as well as 60s rock and folk music. He also loved cooking and watching Sixers basketball games. He was a floor sander by trade. In 1984 at age 32 he was rendered quadriplegic in a car accident and lived for 24 more years. He retained his love of life and had a strong will to live. All poems were written a few years after the accident, typed one letter at a time, using a sip and puff device. Poems were submitted by his wife Cheryl. more…

All William Goresko poems | William Goresko Books

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