Analysis of Should Not An Artist
Daniel Millard 1976 (Medford, OR)
Should not an artist
Starve himself
Down to a
Good fighting weight?
Writing himself out
To be the
Champion of his times
Echoing back - calling to his mates
Reaching back to all of those painted
Yesterday's
Ages that he knew he would never have
Survived
Light intact
His story - History
Evaporates
Leaving only ink-stained pages
I beg you read my lines
That I may live once more
That I may never die
Should not an artist
Sync and vibe
His way into each moment?
Making elemental changes
To accommodate
The muse
Allowing her to bloom
As she see's fit
Allowing her to mark this
Time and space sequence
As her very own
Should he not take
The lady into his arms
As though she belonged
To no other?
Unwrapping these gifts
Layer after layer
To reveal and revel in
Her stunning glories?
I ask you once again
Should he not?
Will any other eye see her in this light
Or from these angles?
Will his craft
If he wills it so
Capture and translate
Truthfully?
A slave to love and ambition
He would not dare to lay aside his
Quills
Should not an artist
Reach
Stretching toward the sun
Bending to the will of
Whatever light he finds?
Shall we not bury deeply
Our roots into this
Mother Earth?
Knowing that the life she gives
Is fragile
Knowing both frailty and futility
Better off indeed we find
The not knowing
The endlessness in possibility
The blossoming of flowers and
The laborious fruit found only in
Hope and impermanence
Scheme | Axbc xbd exxxxx fegxxx Axx gcxxxhxx xxxixijx xxxxxxcfkxd Axkxxfhxxxf xxfxjd |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110 101 110 1101 10011 110 100111 100110111 101111110 10 1011111101 01 101 110100 010 10101110 111111 111111 111101 11110 101 1101110 1001010 1010 01 010011 1111 0100111 10110 10101 1111 0100111 11101 1110 01011 101010 1010100 01010 111101 111 11010110011 11110 111 11111 10001 100 01110010 111111011 1 11110 1 100101 101011 10111 1111010 101011 101 1010111 110 1011000100 1010111 0110 0100100 01001100 0010011100 101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,434 |
Words | 289 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 3, 6, 6, 3, 8, 8, 11, 11, 6 |
Lines Amount | 66 |
Letters per line (avg) | 17 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 114 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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"Should Not An Artist" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/160799/should-not-an-artist>.
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