poem #20



For balls to bounce is very rude,
Unless they dropped.  Ascendancy
Is boldness we don’t like to see.     
And roundness really is quite lewd.  
For spheres, directions are the same,
And favoring the vertical
Is impudent in a mere ball.  
A proper toy should be more tame.

About this poem

I got the idea for this one from Kafka’s short story Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor. Those weird bouncing balls really freak me out, like something out of The Twilight Zone. I’ve always thought this story was one of his best and under-appreciated. I’ve never been able to find much critical literature that mentions it.

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Submitted by DavidPlantinga on July 30, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

14 sec read
5

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBACDEC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 267
Words 47
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 8

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    "poem #20" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 Oct. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/106059/poem-#20>.

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