Twenty Lines



They gave me twenty lines,
To open up my soul.
A short and narrow window,
Envisioning the whole.
Are twenty lines enough,
To say what must be said?
To recreate the thoughts,
Swirling in my head?
Twenty lines are not enough,
To tell you and you know it.
Just enough to leave you curious,
About this would-be poet.
With twenty lines could I share
The essence of myself?
Or would it fill more volumes,
To sit upon a shelf?
Maybe nothing's to be said,
And nothing to be seen.
I didn't need your twenty lines
I could have done it in nineteen.
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Submitted on May 02, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
2

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBDEFEDGHIJKLKEMAM
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 518
Words 102
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20

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    "Twenty Lines" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/89657/twenty-lines>.

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