Analysis of Give Me Something to Believe In



When a lie becomes acceptable,
And an insult is okay.
When drama is assumed to be passion,
And authenticity is in decay.

When caring is no longer important,
And relationships are pushed aside.
When compassion is a weakness,
And there is no one in whom to confide.

When girls don’t know they’re girls,
And boys don’t know they’re boys.
When the ones that get the attention,
Are the ones making senseless noise.

As human waste is thoughtlessly discarded,
In the liquid of which we depend.
And the skies are filled with impurities,
With resolutions that only pretend.

When the institutions are collapsing,
Leaving voids that can’t be filled.
When guiding principles are forgotten,
And no morals are instilled.

When faith, trust, and respect,
Are nowhere to be found.
Humanity will be doomed,
And unable to turn it around.


Scheme XABA XCXC XDBD XEXE XFBF XGXG
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 101010100 010111 1101011110 001001001 1101110010 00101101 10101010 0111101101 111111 011111 101110010 10110101 110111010 001011101 0011110100 101011001 100101010 1011111 1101001010 0110101 111001 11111 0100111 001011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 835
Words 166
Sentences 12
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 108
Words per stanza (avg) 23

About this poem

These are concerning times that we live in and I had these thoughts on my mind.

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Written on January 23, 2024

Submitted by JoseCanUC on January 23, 2024

49 sec read
38

Joe McLaughlin

Raised on a small farm outside of a small town in Texas, I was no stranger to work. It is this work ethic that has propelled my professional success but there is this other side of me. The side that deeply thinks about things. The side with an imagination and a desire to use my hands for more than just brute physical labor. more…

All Joe McLaughlin poems | Joe McLaughlin Books

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