Analysis of Piety
I stare at the cactus in back of the
greenhouse that cowers in hiding,
forgiving the Maker for lack of companions
in voiceless devotion;
he wonders if water were always so friendly
but simply too shy to sneak under the armor
to whistle good morning. But then I am
elsewhere, and in sudden musing,
I catch myself thinking if only I'd married
that surgeon I met on the trolley in Frisco,
the tall man with stubble, I'd likely be
swimming bare-bodied at midnight, lazy,
pink petal in peach-colored porch lights.
But the water runs onto my foot from the
table and empties the pitcher;
the cactus was waiting, so patient; so often
in silence he prayed that I sometimes feel
guilty for leaving.
Scheme | ABCDEFGBHIEEJAFDKB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110100110 111010 010010111010 010010 11011001110 110111110010 1101101111 1001010 11110110110 110111010010 0111101101 101101110 110011011 10101101110 10010010 010110110110 0101111011 10110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 671 |
Words | 123 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 18 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 548 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 123 |
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Submitted on May 01, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 1 View
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"Piety" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/81815/piety>.
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