Analysis of The Vines Inside
“There are vines inside your mother,”
Daddy says, “squeezing as they grow.
Tightening and taking and suffocating
Is all they’ve grown to know.”
“They wrap around her lifelines,”
Daddy says, “cutting off what’s left.
There’s not much there for them to have
For they’ve already taken all the rest.”
I blink my seven-year-old eyes
Startled by daddy’s words.
“How can there be plants in mommy?
Are there also fish and birds?”
Daddy shakes his head and says,
“No, baby, only the vines live inside.
Only for so much longer, though,
For mommy doesn’t have much time.”
“The doctors tell me just a month,”
Daddy says, as he tucks my hair behind my ear.
I swallow down a quiet sob
And wipe away his tears.
Scheme | X A X A X X X X X B X B X X A X X X X X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) |
Metre | 11101110 10110111 1000100100 111111 110101 10110101 11111111 1101010101 11110111 10111 11111010 1110101 1011101 1101001101 10111101 1101111 01011101 101111110111 11010101 010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 754 |
Words | 158 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 20 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 26 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 6 |
About this poem
This poem represents both innocence of a child being introduced to something as horrendous as cancer, and facing the loss of a parent, as well as the strength you can find in children when they’re faced with a parent in a state of vulnerability.
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"The Vines Inside" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/133883/the-vines-inside>.
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