Analysis of And People Wandered Aimlessly
“But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.”
- Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms
And People Wandered Aimlessly
I dreamt I scaled a castle wall
and stood upon a pointed spire
In black and white I saw a world
of souls ablaze in funeral pyres
Entangled trees of smoky grays
that knelt in grief for death of peace
And people wandering aimlessly
uncertain how to make war cease
Crumbled cities powdery white
smoldering in a dusty glow
And people wandering aimlessly
unsure of where they were to go
Along the shore the sand was black
where fishes’ bones like headstones lay
And people wandering aimlessly
feared they would never find their way
Maimed children clung to bloody skirts
and wept in dying mothers’ arms
And people wandering aimlessly
hoped to elude incoming bombs
Snared sun, and moon, and stars
were lynched
upon a low and darkened sky
And people wandered aimlessly
resigned they too were soon to die
Scheme | ab A xxxx xcAc xdAd xeAe xbAx xxfAf |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111110101001010001010100 10100111 01010100 11110101 01010101 01011101 1101010010 01011101 11011111 010100100 01011111 10101001 10000101 010100100 01111011 01010111 1101111 010100100 11110111 11011101 01010101 010100100 1101101 110101 01 01010101 01010100 01110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,012 |
Words | 194 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
About this poem
Images of war have been in my waking and sleeping mind. I wanted to create a picture of a dream, more aptly, nightmare of war in general, but the black and white images that were most prominent were those of the war and people of Gaza. War should not be. Anywhere, ever. We all need to respect the sanctity and beauty of life, in its every form, every people.
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"And People Wandered Aimlessly" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/182715/and-people-wandered-aimlessly>.
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