Analysis of A prayer for the children of Ukraine



I cannot now remember when the rockets did not fall,
When soldiers did not walk the streets, and mama did not cry
When trees were green, not blackened, and the buildings still stood tall
I can’t recall those golden days, no matter how I try.

But Mama says there was a time we did not live in fear
A time we were not hungry, and our dad came home at night
We ran, we laughed, we played in parks, no danger hovered near
That seems a fairy tale to me, since outside all is blight.

Oh God, my Mama still says you are watching o’er Ukraine
Even while the tanks and guns still rumble in my street
I know that I must give to you my sadness and my pain
Please teach me how to do this thing, that seems too great a feat

The days that were, will come again, the laughter and the song
Oh Lord make haste to bring your peace and help us end this wrong.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Poetic Form
Metre 11010101010111 11011101010111 11011100010111 1111101110111 11011101111101 011011001011111 11111101110101 11010111111111 11110111110101 1010101110011 11111111110011 11111111111101 01101101010001 11111111011111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 847
Words 176
Sentences 3
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 2
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 47
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 163
Words per stanza (avg) 43

About this poem

I wrote this after seeing the destruction in Ukraine

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Written on May 21, 2022

Submitted by jchslaton on May 21, 2022

Modified on April 30, 2023

52 sec read
49

Jonathan Slaton

Jonathan Slaton, a retired IT nerd who dabbles in poetry. more…

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