Analysis of When we were kids
Phil Roberts 1957 (Melbourne)
Long before TV's Retard Ninja Turkeys
We used to play in sewer pipes,
In South Kingsville, down near Yabby Creek
Where the stench was often more than ripe.
Without money for playhouses in the 1960s
We'd pretend the pipes were foreign lands,
And we were cowboys hunting Indians
Or Sheikhs riding into red desert sands.
Or we were soldiers in the second world war
Fighting the enemy on the run,
But as Aussies we had the upper hand
Since we got to use Mr. Owen's gun.
Or they were wormholes to other worlds
Like in Star Trek and later Blakes 7,
We could zoom toward the outer galaxies
Reaching almost right up into heaven.
Or they were tunnels leading underground
To where Morlocks and other monsters thrived,
And we would have to go right into their lair
To fight if the human race were to survive.
Or we were train-drivers on the Met
Zooming through the proposed underground,
Taking workers from station to station
Ferrying tourists about Melbourne Town.
Long before TV's Ninja Turkeys
It was poverty that made us play in pipes,
In the 21st century, kids are still poor
And have to play any way they can contrive.
If governments would sometimes tax the rich
They'd have money to hand out to the poor,
Then with better lounge-rooms and cubby houses
Kids could play more safely indoors.
THE END
© Copyright 2021, Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Scheme | ABXX XCXC XDXD XXAD EXXF XEDX ABGF XGXX XXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1011011010 11110101 0111111 101110111 0110110001 101010101 010110100 1110011101 11010001011 100100101 111110101 1111110101 11011101 10110101 11101010100 101110110 110101010 111010101 01111110111 11101010101 110110101 10100110 1010110110 1001001101 10111010 11100111101 0011001111 01111011101 1100101101 1110111101 1110110110 1111101 01 101010 100100010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,323 |
Words | 239 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 121 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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"When we were kids" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/99331/when-we-were-kids>.
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