Analysis of The Watch
Elegant and periodic,
Extensive and hypnotic.
Standing at the feet of this masterpiece,
A young boy with a heavy heart,
In a bedroom closet, hidden in the dark.
He can see its patterns in stark, detail.
Lines that flicker in and out,
Entangled but escaping,
Relentlessly changing.
Each line comes to an end,
At the point in which another begins.
A broken chronograph,
Affixed to an unobservant man's arm.
Hands leaping forward,
In an awkward progression,
Like a race between lovers,
Who can't stand convention.
Predictable but ungovernable,
The horologist is absent control,
Trying in vain to make the hands slow.
Elegant and periodic,
Treacherous and despotic.
This line tangles around an old man's wrist,
The knots are quick but strong,
They lead the frightened man along.
Leading and pulling,
The boy, pleading in knowing,
Grabs the line in defiance,
As it whips left and right.
Flashes of an old country,
Of poverty and resilience,
Of independence and brilliance,
Of desperation and dependence,
Of love and selflessness,
Of a ceramic home held tightly to a chest.
The line, pulling with greater ferocity,
Forced the boy to lose hold.
He met the gaze of the old man,
As the lines froze,
No words were spoken, but everything was told.
An instant later the lines vanished,
Leaving the boy alone.
The lines ever present, pulling him along.
Scheme | AabcdefgghijklmnmopqAarssggtuvtttwxvyz1 y2 3 s |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1000010 0100010 101011110 01110101 0011010001 1111100101 1110001 0101010 010010 111111 1010101001 0101 0111111 11010 0110010 1010110 111010 0100101000 0111001 100111011 1000010 1000010 1110011111 011111 11010101 10010 0110010 1010010 111101 1011110 110000100 1010010 10100010 110100 100101110101 01101100100 101111 11011011 1011 1101011011 110100110 100101 01101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,359 |
Words | 267 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 43 |
Lines Amount | 43 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,063 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 225 |
About this poem
Reflections on early thoughts of mortality.
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Written on May 24, 2022
Submitted by jamesg.42685 on May 25, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
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"The Watch" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/129454/the-watch>.
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