Analysis of Ode to an Articulated Bus



It’s been ten minutes, maybe more
I’ve stood here pacing, waiting for
A crosstown bus; it’s always late,
I’ll never make it home by eight.

I’ve now been here for fifteen minutes.
Have I seen a crosstown in it?
I’ve been waiting (and berating)
While MTA’s articulating.

It’s been twenty minutes now
I’m getting plenty sore at how
These buses never run on time;
They leave me sitting here to whine
About the service’s decline,
Too mad to even make a rhyme.

Thirty minutes is too much
Why do they call this hour rush?
And why are buses getting bigger
When we need them only quicker?
I could stand here half the night
With no buses within sight.

I think I’ll walk while there’s still light.


Scheme AABB XXCC DDEFFE XXGGHH H
Poetic Form
Metre 11110101 11110101 011111 11011111 111110110 1110101 11100010 110100 1110101 11010111 11010111 11110111 01010001 11110101 1010111 11111101 011101010 11111010 1111101 1110011 11111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 715
Words 142
Sentences 9
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6, 6, 1
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 106
Words per stanza (avg) 25

About this poem

I composed this poem on my walk home.

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Submitted by stephan_c on March 13, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
47

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