Analysis of Last Day of Winter - May Day, 1992
William Goresko 1951 (Philadelphia, PA) – 2008 (Willow Grove, PA)
On this final day of winter, the trees,
Dry and brittle like old folk
Stand motionless, frozen to attention.
In their suits of snow,
Icicles dully glowing,
They wait breathlessly
For a chance to shake free
Of their bonds and stir to life.
But on this day when the wind slumbers,
The only movements are those of the snow
Which falls with cunning intent,
And the big black crows
Hopping from branch to branch.
Mute and still as tombstones
That cannot even smell the memories
Of the bones on which they stand,
The trees will endure winter's death rattle
Before awakening to the warm breath of spring.
Pale green, like Japanese tea,
And pink-white cherry blossoms,
Mingle to form a sea spray of color,
Light as foam, across the land.
The trees exult in their splendor,
Trembling in the soft breeze
In love once more with sun and sky,
Moved by warmth, alive with sap.
With this shy and buoyant freshness,
This optimism born of
Cycles of vernal redemption,
They loose their petals down on us
In gentle flurries.
The air becomes cool and moist
With their perfumed exhalations,
Tendrils reaching into old, dry hearts,
Into discontented hearts of middle age
Stirring the husks of our youth,
The unsprung seeds of unlived lives,
Sending us reeling, intoxicated
By the sweet smell of salvation.
Scheme | AXBCDEEXACXXXXAFXD EXGFGAXXHXBHAXAXXXXXB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110111001 1010111 1100101010 01111 100110 11100 101111 1110111 11111011 0101011101 1111001 00111 101111 10111 1101010100 1011111 0110110110 010100101111 111011 0111010 1011011110 1110101 01010110 1000011 01111101 1110111 11101010 110011 10110010 11110111 01010 0101101 11011 11001111 0101011101 10011101 011111 101100100 10111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,282 |
Words | 225 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 18, 21 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 514 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 112 |
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"Last Day of Winter - May Day, 1992" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/98751/last-day-of-winter---may-day%2C-1992>.
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