Analysis of I am not immune
Suffering is upon me
The corridors of time stretch vast
I resonate with an ancestral echo
A quicksilver strain
Poisonous, un-transmuted, sickly sounding
A gorgon's song of shadow and grief
Unresolved, Ancient, and New all at once
A heavy awareness is with me
It knocked upon my door
With Hubris, I opened
And found this unexpected visitor
To whom I bid farewell, and who will not go
Am I undone?
I have believed
“I am inviolate!”
That neither circumstance nor mood could make
this heart heavy, frightened, and hot
But it now beats in my breast, afflicted
And the light seems very far away
I am not immune
The body ages, the mind distorts
Misfortune befalls, confusion infects
I cast out for joy, for anchor, for comfort
and find none
I look to my elders and find no answers
I turn to my child and cannot ask
I am mute
I am deaf
I am blind
I am weak
I am not immune
Like an infant crying in the night
I find no succor
I cry: “Mother! Mother, where are you?!”
When will I be lifted and held to the bosom of mother-comfort?
No answer comes
This body pains me – I don’t want it
My hunger is insatiable – release me
I am confined – liberate me
I cannot believe my own lies – the agony!
I am alone I am alone I am alone
| Scheme | axbxxxx axxcbd xexxxxF xxgd xxxxxxF xcxgx eaaax |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 1001011 01001111 1101101010 01101 100111010 0111101 0011001111 010010111 110111 110110 011010100 1111101111 1101 1101 110100 110101111 11101001 1111011010 001110101 11101 010100101 0100101001 11111110110 011 11111001110 111110101 111 111 111 111 11101 111010001 11110 111010111 11111001101011010 1101 110111111 11010100011 1101101 110011110100 110111011101 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 1,247 |
| Words | 255 |
| Sentences | 7 |
| Stanzas | 7 |
| Stanza Lengths | 7, 6, 7, 4, 7, 5, 5 |
| Lines Amount | 41 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 135 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
About this poem
This poem was written during a two year period of confusion and solitude. My daughter, who I raised as a single mother, graduated and left home. I was unexpectedly plunged into a collapse and depression in which I realized that I'd never grieved the death of my mother, my divorce, or my ex-husband's abandonment of my daughter. The anger, grief, shame, and fear that I'd compartmentalized for over a decade crashed in on my like a wave. I felt as if I were drowning. I've always thought of myself as an optimistic, positive, driven person with a can-do attitude. The spiral I found myself in was humbling. There was no where to turn. I felt terribly alone. more »
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"I am not immune" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/161081/i-am-not-immune>.
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