Analysis of For the unknown
philip lacey 1956 (United Kingdom)
A dimly lit staircase leading from the street
Carpets worn and ragged, broken bed, dirty sheets
The woodwork needed painting, walls were black with damp
Just an old chair and a table on the table stood a lamp
A picture of a woman a sepia photograph
A cutting from a paper a well-read paragraph
Never knew his mother died whilst giving birth
Just a few lines in the paper was all her life was worth
Just a stray dog going through the bins
Silent streets sleeping off the sins
A baby’s crying sounds into the night
And a ghostly presence lingers here tonight
The odds were stacked against him fighting to survive
A strong determination the will to stay alive
His body felt the hunger, his body felt the cold
But most of all his body felt the pains of growing old
No friends or family he died all alone
He passed away that day into the vast unknown
His death went undetected about three months or more
When bailiffs came in the pouring rain and battered down the door
Just a stray dog going through the bins
Silent streets sleeping off the sins
A baby’s crying sounds into the night
And a ghostly presence lingers here tonight
Scheme | xxaabbcc DDEE ffgghhii DDEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Song |
Metre | 0101110101 101010101101 01101010111 111100101010101 0101010010010 010101001110 10111011101 10110010110111 101110101 10110101 011010101 00101010101 010101110101 010010011101 1101010110101 11111101011101 11110011101 110111010101 111010011111 110100101010101 101110101 10110101 011010101 00101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,104 |
Words | 208 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 227 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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"For the unknown" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/99465/for-the-unknown>.
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