Analysis of The Theater of Politics

Jonasboumher 2002 (Copenhagen)



In the grand theater of politics, power and place,
Are players with faces masked in mercurial grace.
Their words weave tapestries of shimmering lies,
Spun in silvered speeches, beneath truth's disguise.

Upon the world's stage, beneath the proscenium arch,
Each plays their part in this never-ending march.
In corridors of power, where shadows are cast,
The future is but echoes of a forgotten past.

Democracy, the darling of our idealistic youth,
Bound by the chains of compromise, strays from truth.
In opaque chambers, liberty stands on trial,
As we trade our freedoms for security's guile.

In this ballet of words and wars, the innocent dance,
Held captive to the whims of political chance.
Silent tongues of the oppressed plead for a voice,
But in the grand theater, they are granted no choice.

The mighty currency of fear stirs the populist sea,
Sailing on waves of ignorance, craving to be free.
But freedom’s not a fortress, nor a shouting crowd,
It’s the quiet voice of reason, in silence standing proud.

Dissent, the drumbeat of democracy, rings out clear,
A song sung by the brave, who hold freedom dear.
Yet in halls where echoes of past greatness still dwell,
Dissent is drowned by the clamor of the tyrant's bell.

The ballot, our hope, once inked in honest creed,
Now drowns in a digital sea, sown with deceptive seed.
Truth, a precious commodity, now sold for a song,
In the marketplace of opinions, where facts do not belong.

Yet, the theater of politics, both cruel and kind,
Is but a mirror held up to the collective mind.
In each choice, each vote, each political decree,
The state of our world, in stark reflection, we see.

A promise to the future, a testament to the past,
In the theater of politics, may truth hold the cast.
For in the end, when the final curtain falls,
'Tis we, the audience, who hold the halls.


Scheme AABB CCDD EEXX FFGG HHII JJKK LLMM NNHH DDOO
Poetic Form Quatrain  (89%)
Metre 0011001101001 1101101001001 11110011001 1011001101 0101101011 11110110101 01001101111 0101110100101 010001011000101 1101110111 001101001110 1111010101001 0101110101001 110101101001 10110011101 1001100111011 01010011101001 1011110010111 110101010101 10101110010101 010110100111 01110111101 101110111011 011110101011 010101110101 11001001110101 1010010011101 00101010111101 1010011011001 1101011100101 011111010001 0111010101011 01010100100101 0010011011101 10011010101 1101001101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,846
Words 362
Sentences 18
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 40
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 160
Words per stanza (avg) 35

About this poem

My poem uses theatrical imagery to represent the political landscape. It seeks to delve into the complexities, challenges, and moral quandaries inherent to politics. The first stanza introduces politics as a theatrical performance where politicians wear "faces masked in mercurial grace," representing the constant changes, shifts in loyalty and public persona that politicians often exhibit. Their "shimmering lies" is a critique of political rhetoric and propaganda that can often obscure the truth. The second stanza carries forward the idea of politics as a play and speaks of the continuity of political processes. It invokes the notion that current politics and future decisions are haunted by the past's echoes. The third stanza raises a key concern about democracy, suggesting that it is often compromised and manipulated. The lines point out the paradox of a society trading freedoms for the illusion of security. The fourth and fifth stanzas touch on the theme  

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Written on June 04, 2023

Submitted by Jonasboumherr on June 03, 2023

1:49 min read
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