Analysis of As History Laughs
The Citizens danced
Romulus cried
Centurions posed
in Legions wide
“The world is ours”
they said in glee
“And death to those
who don’t concede”
The past unyielding
future loaned
The present flew
like David’s stone
Their party ending
candles burnt
With spoils poisoned
lessons spurned
And history writes
that in a day…
What once was Rome
was cast astray
Whose legend carved
in stone reminds
What young Narcissus
hoped to find
The glory that once
ruled the world
Now left in rubble
myth unfurled
As time awaits
to stalk our path
That wolf inside
—as history laughs
(Villanova Pennsylvania: October, 2018)
| Scheme | XA XA XX XX BX XX BX XX XC XC XX XX XD XD XX AX X |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 01001 1001 11 0101 01110 1101 0111 1101 01010 101 0101 1101 11010 101 1110 101 01001 1001 1111 1101 1101 0101 11010 111 01011 101 11010 101 1101 11101 1101 11001 010010010 |
| Closest metre | Iambic dimeter |
| Characters | 619 |
| Words | 102 |
| Sentences | 1 |
| Stanzas | 17 |
| Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 |
| Lines Amount | 33 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 15 |
| Words per line (avg) | 3 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 29 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 6 |
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"As History Laughs" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/47667/as-history-laughs>.
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