Analysis of That Dinner in Venice

Neil McLeod 1947 (Oxford)



That Dinner in Venice

The question that started it rolling,
 Was, “If I would care to recall,
 A most notable dining experience,
 That I could relate to them all.”

It was when touring Venice together
 We detoured to see where Mozart stayed.
 At the end of which time we wanted to dine,
 So down alleys and canals we strayed.

At length a staircase we encountered
 With a doorway illumined below,
 And down to the chattering ambience
 We went enticed by the glow.

We opened the door to meet silence,
 Every eye in the room met our gaze,
 Standing with knapsacks and fanny-packs,
 No other tourists in the place.

We had stumbled on a local's diner
 For a moment no sound could be heard,
 Then a little old lady assessing the status
 Broke through the ice with a word.

From her counter she snatched up a bottle,
 She beckoned to us and said,“Come,”
 “Come, come!” and lead us to a table,
 Slapped down the wine and begun.

“Due” she smiled, and the crowd talked
 “Due,” she said  “You are two.”
 “I have spaghetti for this one
 And I have Ravioli for you.”

And we ate, and the food was exquisite,
 Not embellished, just plain wholesome fare,
 Which we'll long remember, and admonish you,
 To do likewise should you venture there.


Scheme A XBCB DEXE FGCG CXXX DFAF HXHI XJIJ XKJK
Poetic Form
Metre 110010 010110110 1111111 01100100100 11101111 1111010010 110111101 10111111011 111000111 11011010 10101001 0110100100 1101101 110011110 10010011101 10110101 11010001 1110101010 101011111 1010110010010 1101101 1010111010 1101101 110111010 1101001 1110011 111111 11010111 01101011 0110011100 101011101 11101000101 11111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,228
Words 226
Sentences 11
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 33
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 103
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted by NeilMcLeod on July 10, 2014

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:08 min read
4

Neil McLeod

Born in Oxford, raised in Kenya, past winner of Los Slamgeles Poetry Slam and author of abitingchance.blogspot.comand "The First Thanksgiving".Doctor McLeod is a performing poet who has recited at Highland Games, dinners and Burns Nights for the last 36 years. He is happily married, lives and works in Los Angeles,has three children, and practices as a dentist on Sunset Boulevard:http://www.drneilmcleod.com/He can be contacted by e-mail at drneilmcleod@yahoo.com and will willingly entertain requests to share his work with permission. more…

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