Analysis of The Invitation
Oriah Mountain Dreamer 1954 (Ontario)
It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.
I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.
It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.
I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”
It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.
By Oriah © Mountain Dreaming,
from the book The Invitation
published by HarperONE, San Francisco,
1999 All rights reserved
Scheme | AbCxdb AeCxxxdf AegCxcxhxi CiJkkk CxJlmxlnxxo Aamxpqrnxha aasxx Cpxxgx Afxxrjoo Acxxpax AxxCmxs Cjqxxx bocx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (40%) |
Metre | 11101 1111010 1111 1111 011111 1101110 11101 1111 1111 1111 10101 11 111 1001011001 11101 1101 1011 1111 1111 01011110 111110 11010 1101101 111101 1111 111111 1111 0110111 111 111 1111 111111 1111 1111110 01010011 101111001 011001 1110 11010 10100010 11010 11101 101011101 11 1111111 01010 111101 1111 00101010 0101111 11111 0110 1111111110 10111110 1001 01111111 1110 1111 1111110 101 011101101 0110101011 1 11101 11111 1111011 111111111 100111001 1001101 0111111 11010 11101 111 1111111 11111111 00101010 11 0111 11101 111111 1110 1111 1011 1001 111101 1111 111101 101 011101 010011 001010 111010 1010010 10111010 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 2,210 |
Words | 483 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 8, 10, 6, 11, 11, 5, 6, 8, 7, 7, 6, 4 |
Lines Amount | 95 |
Letters per line (avg) | 18 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 130 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Written on 1994
Submitted by dgirlintx on January 05, 2023
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 2:25 min read
- 2,972 Views
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"The Invitation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/147527/the-invitation>.
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