Analysis of CRYSTALLINE TOWERS
Phil Roberts 1957 (Melbourne)
Crystalline towers
Reaching almost to heaven,
Singing in the wind.
Metallic statues
Of hideous carnivores,
Once living round here.
Silence except whistling
From the towers ... then shrilling
In the distance.
A great way off resounds
Such monstrous bellowing,
Never heard on Earth.
Could the old statues
Represent monstrous creatures,
Still living today?
Hideous bird song
Part cawing and part shrilling,
Also approaching.
The singing towers
Seem to call to the terrors,
Rapidly nearing.
Through the crystal forest
Comes the sound of glass breaking,
As horrors near.
A strange shimmering
Shows vaguely in the distance
Something on the way.
Standing by the towers
Nightmare beasts are running,
Rapidly toward you.
Strange silvery shapes
Look vaguely like animals,
Still you can't see what.
As the creatures near
You see that, like the towers,
They are crystalline.
Grotesquely ugly beasts
Made of living crystals,
Reflecting sunlight.
As the beasts approach
In fear, you hurl a crystal rock,
Hitting one beast.
As the stone connects
The crystal monster shatters,
Still seven remain.
Shrilling in terror
The other beasts turn and run,
Back to the forest.
Shrilling as they run
Smashing through the crystal trees,
In a mad stampede.
Now you're alone
You and the crystal towers,
Now singing in distress.
THE END
© Copyright 2021, Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Scheme | ABX CXX DDE ADX CAF XDD AAD GDH DEF ADX XIX HAX XIX XXX XAX XBG BXX XAX XXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010 101110 10001 0101 110010 11011 100110 101011 0010 01111 110100 10111 1011 011010 11001 10011 11011 10010 01010 1111010 10010 101010 1011110 1101 01100 1100010 10101 101010 11110 100011 11001 1101100 11111 10101 1111010 1110 010101 111010 0101 10101 01110101 1011 10101 0101010 11001 1010 0101101 11010 1111 1010101 00101 1101 1001010 110001 01 101010 100100010 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,320 |
Words | 216 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 19 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 57 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 58 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 11 |
About this poem
Somehow you find yourself on a strange world, where plants, animals, cliffs are all made of crystal.
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"CRYSTALLINE TOWERS" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/101520/crystalline-towers>.
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