poem #9
David Plantinga 1972 (Sherbrooke)
An hour-glass stands up nice and straight
On a flat, polished end,
While bells suspend like carrion
On rods that never bend.
Grains of sand in a transparent bulb,
Mustered in a smooth cone,
Slip through a graceful crystal neck
To toll in silky tones.
But as bells swing and clang, they gulp
From a meridian,
One sideways to the zenith zone,
And fill themselves again.
A bell will always know the time,
But still politely wait
For eager hands to yank their cord,
Even when slightly late.
But a depleted hour-glass sits
Until impatient hands
Can flip it over on its crown
And fill its heads with sand.
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Submitted by DavidPlantinga on May 11, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 8 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCB XDXX XCDX XAXA XXXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 605 |
Words | 109 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"poem #9" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/99679/poem-#9>.
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