If You Had Not Been Born



The world would be shallow if you had not been born.
The world would be fallow, barren, plain and torn.

The world would be darkness if you had not been born.
The world would be starkness, silent, dim and torn.

The world would be askant
if you had not been born.
The world would be aslant, perverse, bent and torn.

The world would be futile
if you had not been born.
The world would be brutal, ghastly, harsh and torn.

The world would be frigid
if you had not been born.
The world would be rigid, churlish, bleak and torn.

The world would be slacking
if you had not been born.
The world would be lacking, austere, slim and torn.

The world would be ho-hum
if you had not been born.
The world would be hokum, drivel, trash and torn.

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Submitted on January 13, 2010

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
1

Quick analysis:

Scheme aa aa bAa xAa bAa xAa xAa
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 711
Words 140
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Wallace Dean LaBenne

Professor, therapist, author and poet. more…

All Wallace Dean LaBenne poems | Wallace Dean LaBenne Books

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    "If You Had Not Been Born" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/74973/if-you-had-not-been-born>.

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