Analysis of THE DARK END OF KING STREET
It was late at night in Melbourne Town
At the dark end of King Street,
Wendy and Joe were starting home
Unconcerned by whom they might meet.
But as they'd barely started out
On the journey homeward bound,
They saw an old man writhing as if in pain
On the dark and dirty ground.
Samaritans all of their lives they'd been
So they quickly went to help,
Without a moment's hesitancy
Without a single qualm.
But when Joe turned the old man over
Instead of being hurt or ill,
He was a vomit-stained old wino
Who had more than had his fill.
With broken bottle in his hand
Before Joe could move to stop,
He slashed across the Samaritan's head
All but cutting his face clean off.
Hearing Wendy's hysterical screaming
Other partiers came to help out,
And restrained the wino, who otherwise
Would have killed Joe without a doubt.
Then while someone called an ambulance
Joe and Wendy were helped inside,
Joe holding his cut-off face in his hands
As poor Wendy cried and cried and cried.
In a little while, the ambulance came
And Joe was taken for a ride,
Someone drove Wendy after them
Although they all thought Joe would die.
In Footscray's Western Hospital
Joe was rushed straight away inside,
And with injections and other medications
His condition was soon stabilised.
Although it was two days before the operation
When a surgeon sewed his face back on,
They had him quickly off the danger list
And all thoughts of death were gone.
Though it would take years to fully recover
Joe felt lucky that he didn't die,
And he managed to get his life in order
With Wendy, a good woman, by his side.
If there's a moral to this story
It's: be careful of whom you help,
Because first and foremost you must take care
And be certain to look after yourself.
THE END
© Copyright 2021, Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Scheme | XABA CDXD XEFB GHXH XXXX XCXC XIXI XIXJ XIXA XXXX GJGI FEXX XXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110101 1011111 10010101 0111111 11110101 1010101 11111101101 1010101 0100111111 1110111 010101000 010101 111101110 01110111 110101110 1111111 11010011 0111111 1101011 11101111 1010010010 1011111 001010110 11110101 11111100 10100101 1101111011 111010101 0010101001 01110101 1110101 1111111 011010 11110101 01010010010 1010111 11111010010 101011111 1111010101 0111101 11111110010 111011101 01101111010 1100110111 110101110 11101111 011011111 0110111001 01 101010 100100010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,757 |
Words | 327 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3 |
Lines Amount | 51 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 110 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
About this poem
Noy a great poem; but a true story.
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Written on February 10, 2009
Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on July 21, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:40 min read
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"THE DARK END OF KING STREET" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/105431/the-dark-end-of-king-street>.
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