Analysis of We Must Give Up the Dream
Jeffrey Powell 1979 (Pittsburgh, PA)
That song that you made up in your own head
takes on a new life if- you can one day hear it
really playing out loud instead
To the taking in of all the beauty of a lake
despite all it’d been built up to be
you must be there to see what nature can make
The time, the work, the stress required just to capture
that degree or vocation- will always outmatch
the childhood daydreaming of the stature
The planning and the plotting in order to make yield
acceptance as a Marine- never could substitute
for all the fear felt on a battlefield
The expectation of: your own child’s innocence discerned
or their precious feathered hair- fails to compare
to their actual, true tenderness; unconditional love returned
Visualizing walking hand-in-hand in meadow sweet
cannot rival the actuality of taking
those very steps with our own feet
To knowing well and anticipating that very day you die
it surely can’t replicate that feeling
of finally departing your body–to fly
Life won't always be how it would seem
as we live, learn, listen, love and leave
But when we encounter the real thing we give up the dream
Scheme | AXA BXB CXC DXD EXE FGF HGH IXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110111 110111111111 10101101 1010011010101 011111111 11111111011 0101010101110 1011010111 01101010 0100010010111 010100110110 110111010 0010111110001 11101011101 1110011000100101 10010101011 10100010110 110111011 110100100110111 110110110 110001011011 11111111 111110101 11101001111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,110 |
Words | 204 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 110 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
About this poem
Inspired by a short story l read recently...there just seems to be undeniable truth in this sentiment.
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"We Must Give Up the Dream" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/158919/we-must-give-up-the-dream>.
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