Analysis of Graven Images (The Death Rattle Of J. Alfred Prufrock)
John Jessup Kennan 1953 (Pomona)
I've grown weary of the questions
You insist that must be asked
You'll sleep in peace with opium
Strangled with a vital mask
I will make your skull my soup bowl
Fill it full of Cherub Stew
Angel wings and angel dust
Stirred in the juice I drain from you
Then I'll drag you to the table
For another round of talks
And watch it all on the big screen
Up in a luminary box
In the arena I created
Every heathen is a pope
I'll cropdust it with gasoline
Strike a match and have a smoke
Revolutionaries
Come and go
Toppling the statues
Of Michelangelo
No question is too difficult
I promise anything you ask
So come to me, my darling
I will wear you like a mask
In the cinematic bistro
The sandwiches are dope
A queen on every street corner
A strategically-placed pope
Meet me in the grain bread aisle
I'll feel you comin' through the rye
Purge wheat fields with ecstasy
From a laser gleam inside your eye
I watch you like an eagle, baby
You know, you really turn me on
Sleep all day till the sun goes down
Make love until the dawn
Revolutionaries
Come and go
Toppling the statues
Of Michelangelo
They say the hole is greater
Than the sum of all its parts
Your thighbones are the drumsticks
For the pounding of my heart
Your clavicles the handles
That secure me through the slide
You gotta be at least this high
To ride upon this ride
Umbilical cords rot away
Belly buttons give a wink
They say purple is for royalty
But I gotta have my pink
When this beast has had its holy feast
Satiate unsatiable taste
I'll grind you into angel sausage
Now I lay you down to waste
Revolutionaries
Come and go
Toppling the statues
Of Michelangelo
© John Kennan 6-19-20, with apologies to T. S. Eliot
Scheme | axxbxcxc xxdxxedx FGHG xbxbgeie xjkjkxxx FGHG ixaxxljl xmkmxnxn FGHG x |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101010 1011111 11011100 1010101 11111111 1111101 1010101 10011111 11111010 1010111 01111011 1001001 000101010 10010101 111110 1010101 0100 101 10001 1010 11011100 1101011 1111110 1111101 0001010 010011 011100110 0010011 1100111 1111101 1111100 101010111 111111010 11110111 11110111 110101 0100 101 10001 1010 1101110 1011111 11101 1010111 11010 1011101 11011111 110111 01001101 1010101 111011100 1110111 111111101 111 111011010 1111111 0100 101 10001 1010 11010100111100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,619 |
Words | 318 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 4, 8, 8, 4, 8, 8, 4, 1 |
Lines Amount | 61 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 134 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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"Graven Images (The Death Rattle Of J. Alfred Prufrock)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/100846/graven-images-%28the-death-rattle-of-j.-alfred-prufrock%29>.
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