Analysis of Blue
Africans in the hold fold themselves
to make room for hope. In the afternoon’s
ferocity, tar, grouting the planks like the glue
of family, melts to the run of a child’s licorice stick.
Wet decks crack, testing the wood’s mettle.
Distilled from evaporating brine, salt
dusts the floor, tickling with the measure
into time and the thirst trapped below.
The captain’s new cargo of Igbos disturbs him.
They stand, computing the swim back to land.
Haitians still say: Igbo pend’c or’ a ya!
But we do not hang ourselves in cowardice.
Sold six times on the journey to the coast,
once for a gun, then cloth, then iron
manilas, her pride was masticated like husks
of chewing sticks, spat from morning-rank mouths.
Breaking loose, edge of handcuffs held high
like the blade of a vengeful axe, she runs
across the salt scratch of deck,
pain deeper than the blue inside a flame.
The sound, like the break of bone
could have been the Captain’s skull
or the musket shot dropping her
over the side, her chains wrapped
around his neck in dance.
Scheme | XXXX AXBX XXXX XXXX XXXX XABXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 100001101 111110001 010011001101 110011011011001 111100110 011010011 10111010 011001101 0101111011 1101001111 101111101 111110010100 1111010101 110111110 1011111 1101111011 10111111 1011010111 0101111 1101010101 0110111 1110101 10101100 1001011 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,128 |
Words | 186 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 135 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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"Blue" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/108281/blue>.
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