Analysis of An Ode to the Ugly
D A Griffin 1973 (California)
An Ode to the Ugly
The Lord must love such wondrous variety,
to create a world of such oddity.
So you should not fear or hate,
for you may share their fate,
in being strange or ugly.
They say variety is the spice of life, well who am I to argue.
If beauty’s only skin deep,
we’d all be dating creeps,
and life wouldn’t be much fun.
For I say to you what is ugly?
Do you truly know the meaning?
Someone’s preferences may be odd or weird,
a man with a mustache,
a woman with a beard.
But to you, do they all seem fine?
There is something in us all that would define character,
a uniqueness if you will.
There could be no up without a down,
you couldn’t tell a smile if you hadn’t seen a frown.
So how could you define beauty?
Or what of an exotic dish that you have never eaten?
You are sure you would rightly hate.
You know you’d never buy it,
but don’t knock it til you try it,
it just might be delicious.
So here’s an ode to the ugly,
may you be short, tall, fat, or skinny,
are you not the best,
‘cause you don’t look like like rest?
But without you, there could be no beauty.
Scheme | A AABBA XXXC AXDXDX XXEEA CBFFX AAGGA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111010 01111100100 1010111100 1111111 111111 0101110 110100101111111110 111011 111101 011111 111111110 11101010 1100011111 01101 010101 11111111 11100111101100 0010111 111110101 11101111101 11110110 111101011111010 11111101 1111011 11111111 1111010 11111010 111111110 11101 1111111 1011111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,112 |
Words | 253 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 5, 4, 6, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 31 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 116 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
About this poem
This poem was inspired by a friend who was hanging out with a lot of oddball guys. When I asked why he hung out with them he said, “I find them interesting.” It really made me self evaluate my perception of people. And inspired this poem.
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"An Ode to the Ugly" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/172796/an-ode-to-the-ugly>.
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