Analysis of A Survivor's Guilt



My God!My God!
Why have you forsaken us?
Even now the whisper of wheels
On the track
Convulses me with tears.
What more could I have done?
Where did I fail?

You, the least selfish of men,
Dedicated to your students and staff,
Devoted to your family,
Committed the most selfish of acts.
By locking us out,
You locked us
Into a cycle of torment and pain
And we never saw it coming.

Worries you brought home
But you chose not to share them
Shrugging off my pleas
You did not want to worry me,
So you said

You dulled your tortured  mind by
Taking solitary refuge in the bottle
And you began slipping away from me.
I tried to batter the door down
With angry words and tears  
As my frustration mounted

Did the children notice our bitter rows?
Was it then the seeds were sown?
You fled to your mother's house
For the balm of her love
More forgiving than a wife's
And there I hoped you would find
The peace your troubled heart craved.

With your mother you returned
And she soothingly said,
"It will take time."
I saw a faint tear   in her eyes
Though her faith was strong.

That night you said the sofa would be your bed
"Give me time"were the last words I heard
Strangely I slept soundly
But when I awoke
I crept downstairs
To find you
And the car gone.

Frantically I phoned
And your mobile rang
From the depths of the sofa.
Then I saw your letter
On the cleared coffee table
Stark and white.

You begged our forgiveness.
You said this would spare us pain
And you bade me
Look after the children.
Stunned and silent
Your mum and I sat
In dread

When the constables came
With their carefully composed compassion
We knew it was just beginning
You had ripped away the veil of the temple
And the tomb was empty.

You had shorn your lambs
Of their innocence
And inserted a sliver of ice
In their hearts

Now I am faced
With the curse of Greek tragedy
Since I must spend my time
Trying to melt that ice
Before it hardens
Irrevocably


Scheme XAXXBCX XXDXXAEF XXXDG XHDXBX XXXXXXX XGIXX GXDXBXX XXXXHX AEDCXXG XCFHD XXJX XDIJXD
Poetic Form
Metre 111 1110101 10101011 101 1111 111111 1111 1011011 1000111001 01011100 010011011 11011 111 010101101 01101110 10111 1111111 10111 11111101 111 1111011 10100100010 0101100111 11110011 110101 1101010 10101010101 1110101 1111101 101101 1010101 0111111 0111011 1110101 011001 1111 11011001 10111 11110101111 11101111 101110 11101 1111 111 0011 100011 01101 1011010 111110 1011010 101 1110010 1111111 0111 110010 1010 11011 01 101001 1110001010 11111010 11101011010 001110 11111 11100 001001011 011 1111 10111100 111111 101111 01110 01000
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,950
Words 418
Sentences 21
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 7, 8, 5, 6, 7, 5, 7, 6, 7, 5, 4, 6
Lines Amount 73
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 126
Words per stanza (avg) 31

About this poem

It is a poem based upon an incident where the husband committed suicide and it reflects the hurt,horror and heartbreak of a wife left behind wondering where she went wrong and how to protect her children from that awful family tragedy

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Written on November 13, 2019

Submitted by martianemperor on May 10, 2024

2:06 min read
0

Tiresias Gilfedder

 · 1940 · Glasgow

An elderly gentleman who whiles away his time in doing his best to write poetry more…

All Tiresias Gilfedder poems | Tiresias Gilfedder Books

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