Analysis of So…How Are You?!
Melody Martinez 1986 (Texas)
“How are you?” they ask, as the world goes by,
A question so light, yet I choke on my reply.
“I’m okay,” the words like ash on my tongue,
A lie so stark, it feels like lungs unsung.
Inside, a sea of broken glass,
My heart pierced with each moment that does pass.
My daughter once my vibrant light,
Now a memory fading into eternal night.
The smiles I wear so brittle and thin,
Mask the seismic void that quakes within.
Each nod, each grin, a painstaking act,
A facade while inside my soul is cracked.
What I long to say, if courage didn’t wane,
Is “Help me,” through this suffocating pain.
This heart-throb, relentless and deep,
Steals the night’s rest the peace of my sleep.
Would they grasp the weight of this dark fight?
Or recoil from the depths of endless night?
For beneath the surface of my “I’m fine,”
Is a plea for a hand, your fingers entwined.
So ask again, and perhaps I'll dare,
To reveal the raw feelings before gasping for air.
Until then I walk this bumpy road,
Silently begging for solace before I explode!
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH DDXX IIJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (83%) |
Metre | 1111110111 010111111101 110111111 0111111101 01011101 1111110111 11011101 1010010010101 011111001 101011101 11110101 0011011111 1111111011 111111001 11101001 101101111 111011111 1011011101 1010101111 10110111001 110100111 1010110011011 011111101 1001011001101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,053 |
Words | 221 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 131 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
About this poem
As if this question was not asked enough! I realized how much I lied to so many people by saying, “I’m okay” But here’s what I really was thinking…
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"So…How Are You?!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 17 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/185422/so%E2%80%A6how-are-you%3F%21>.
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