Analysis of From Afar
Rachel Beard 1978 (New York)
I watched from afar as his mother said goodbye;
The journey ahead was hers, not his.
He would rest in wonder and peace;
While she began her trudging;
Invisible weights chained at her feet.
I watched from afar as his mother withered in pain.
How she longed to hold him;
How she longed to hear his name;
To hear his voice just one more time;
To mess with him, to hug him, to even argue;
I watched from afar as his mother hunched over from the grief, encountered each first and collapsed in tears.
Moments and hours and sometimes days of sobs, and screams, and silent dying;
I watched from afar, longing to get near,
to help, to comfort, to minimize the fear
of what life would be like without her son,
year after year.
Her journey of life had to continue;
Each day like a thousand years;
While he had ascended, sitting at the feet of Jesus,
A thousand years like a single day.
I longed to find a way to take the yoke off her shoulders,
to break the shackles of weight at her ankles,
to relieve a moment of the heartache,
to ease the difficulty of her journey.
But as I watched from afar, longing to get near,
to be able to wipe away her tears,
I learned all too fast, running straight into the isolating glass, that this journey was hers alone.
The burden she must carry was individualized.
It can't be removed; Its her cross to bear.
I got as close as could be, and looked into her eyes as she saw me.
I walked by her side knowing the barrier was there;
I witnessed the fatigue in her eyes,
Heard the tremble in her voice,
and saw through the facade she bravely put on.
I could not pass through,
I could not alleviate a moment of the heaviness.
She must continue to tread through the muck and the mire.
As she journeys one labored step after another,
I declared to this mother,
Though I watch from afar, and I cannot do a thing, to cross this barricade, to alleviate this pain;
I will walk by her side, my hand reaching out,
touching the glass, here till the last.
While I cannot do a single thing and from afar my heart breaks,
I will walk with the mother at her painstaking pace;
Through the mud, up the hills, over the jagged rough ledges, till slowly over time the weights are chipped and the shackles damaged.
Her gait will forever change,
and some weight will always constrain,
but until the journey levels out,
on the other side of the pane, I will remain.
Scheme | XAXBX CXXXD EB FFXFDXXX XXXGFEX XH GHXXXDAX IICJX XXX XCJC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101111011 010011011 11101001 1101010 010011101 1110111101001 111111 1111111 11111111 111111111010 1110111101101010101100101 100100011110101010 1110110111 1111011001 1111110101 1101 0101111010 1110101 11101010101110 010110101 11110111011010 11010111010 101010101 11010001010 111110110111 1110110101 11111101010100111101001 0101110101000 1110110111 11111110101011111 1110110010011 110001001 1010001 01100111011 11111 111010010101 1101011101001 1110110110010 1011110 111101011010111110101011 11110111101 10011101 1110101010101111 111101010101 10110110011101101010111001010 0110101 0111101 101010101 101011011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,410 |
Words | 504 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 2, 8, 7, 2, 8, 5, 3, 4 |
Lines Amount | 49 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 184 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
About this poem
My good friend lost her son in a tragic gun accident. I wrote this poem as a way of expressing how much I wanted to help, but how much I also understood this was a journey that no one and nothing could really help with. I wanted her to know I saw her and that I would always be there, even if I couldn't do anything else.
Font size:
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"From Afar" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/168093/from-afar>.
Discuss this Rachel Beard poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In