Analysis of What Could Have Been
Joe Strickland 1986 (Hobbysville, SC)
The weight of failure hangs heavy
On my tired, beaten shoulders.
I hesitate, unsure and unsteady,
Floundering in the face of loss.
I try to keep my head up high,
But sometimes it feels like the dome
Is crushing down upon me,
Mocking my efforts to succeed.
Through the haze of disappointment,
I see the ghosts of missed chances,
Remnants of what could have been
If only I had been a little braver.
| Scheme | AXAX XXAX XXXX |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 01110110 11101010 110010010 10000111 11111111 10111101 1101011 10110101 1011010 11011110 1011111 11011101010 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 398 |
| Words | 83 |
| Sentences | 4 |
| Stanzas | 3 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 12 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 104 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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"What Could Have Been" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/159819/what-could-have-been>.
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