Analysis of Imagine There's No Heaven



Remember when Lennon said
"Imagine there's no heaven."?
Hell, there's no need to imagine.
I've been living in purgatory
My whole damn life.
But yeah,
No fiery pit,
No sweet angels
Playing harps.
Just us,
Struggling on this earth
Until the final curtain falls.

"Above us, only sky."
But what a sky it is.
Some days
It's a stunning blue,
Stretching out
As far
As the eye can see.
Other times
It's a sickly grey,
Spitting out rain
Like it's got
A vendetta
Against us.
But it's always there,
This big old sky,
Watching over us
As we stumble
And tumble
Through our little lives.

They say heaven
Is where
The good folks end up,
But what about the rest of us?
Those of us
Who are just trying
To survive
In a world
That doesn't give
A damn about us?
I guess
We're just supposed
To keep
Our heads down
And pray
For something better.

But screw that.
I'll take my chances
With the sky.
It may not be heaven,
But it's something real.
Something tangible.
And in a world
Where everything
Seems so damn fleeting,
That's something
To hold onto. 


Scheme XAABXXXXXCXX DXXEXXBXFXXXCGDCHHX AGXCCIXJXCXXXXFX XXDAXHJIIIE
Poetic Form
Metre 0101101 0101110 11111010 11100100 1111 11 11001 1110 101 11 100111 01010101 011101 110111 11 10101 101 11 10111 101 10101 1011 111 0010 011 1111 1111 10101 1110 010 110101 1110 11 01111 11010111 111 11110 101 001 1101 01011 11 1101 11 1011 01 11010 111 11110 101 111110 11101 10100 0001 110 11110 110 1110
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 1,084
Words 254
Sentences 20
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 12, 19, 16, 11
Lines Amount 58
Letters per line (avg) 14
Words per line (avg) 3
Letters per stanza (avg) 198
Words per stanza (avg) 48
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Written on June 21, 2023

Submitted by JoeStrickland on June 21, 2023

1:19 min read
10

Joe Strickland

I'm just a regular, blue collar, working stiff who took an interest in writing poetry many years ago but until recently I haven't had a desire to share any with anyone or pursue publication. I'm an unpublished fork lift operator by night, and a day drinker by choice. I can be followed on Twitter @JoeStricklandSC more…

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