Analysis of Checks You Can't Cash
Do you live your whole life
in a partially filled space
Do you swear up and down
about reasons defaced
Do you sing in a choir
where the music has died
Do you brand all as liars
as your knots remain tied
Do you rob from the master
just to steal from the slave
Do you live in a mansion
built on top of your grave
Do you look for direction
on trails hollow and thin
Does your soul beg correction
torn away from within
Do you begin every sentence
tracing back to the past
Do you live every moment
—writing checks you can’t cash
(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2016)
Scheme | XX XX AB XB AC DC DE DE XX XX X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111 0010011 111101 011001 1110010 101011 1111110 111011 1111010 111101 1110010 111111 1111010 111001 1111010 101101 110110010 101101 11110010 101111 0100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 564 |
Words | 109 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 41 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 10 |
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"Checks You Can't Cash" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 5 Feb. 2025. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/47162/checks-you-can%27t-cash>.
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