Analysis of The Drunken Preacher
Joe Strickland 1986 (Hobbysville, SC)
The bar was dimly lit, whiskey glasses clinked,
And the air reeked of alcohol fumes,
I sat, nursing my drink, lost in my thoughts,
When a loud mouthed preacher, stumbled in.
He was drunk beyond belief,
And his words slurred, forming no sense,
Yet, he persisted in his sermon,
As I tried to focus on my drink.
Hank, the alcoholic genius beside me,
Looked as disturbed as I felt,
For the preacher's words were not just loud,
But invasive, almost like an assault.
He ranted about his salvation,
And the sinners who needed to repent,
But his words lacked the conviction,
Of a true believer, genuinely sent.
I wondered, what brought him here,
To this dingy bar, with its cigarette smoke,
And dreary atmosphere,
To preach to an audience of drunken folks?
Did he think he was making a difference,
To the alcoholics who sat around,
Lost in their own demons
In need of a comforting sound?
Yet, as I looked around the bar,
No one seemed to heed his words,
Instead, they took another sip,
And continued their own wayward turns.
So, I turned to Hank,
And we shared a knowing smile,
For we were both lost, in our own way,
Trying to find solace in the bottle's guile.
And as the preacher stumbled out,
His words still ringing in our ears,
I realized, I didn't come here for salvation,
But simply to drown out my fears.
Scheme | AXXX XXBX XAAA BABA XXXX XAXA XXXX XCXC ADBD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (44%) |
Metre | 01110110101 00111101 1110111011 101110100 1110101 01111011 110100110 111110111 1001010011 1101111 101010111 101011101 110011010 0010110101 11110010 10101010001 1101111 1110111011 01010 11111001101 11111100100 100101101 101110 01101001 11110101 1111111 01110101 001011101 11111 0110101 1101101011 1011100011 01010101 111100101 110110111010 11011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,312 |
Words | 280 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 113 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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"The Drunken Preacher" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/159479/the-drunken-preacher>.
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