Analysis of mouse and elephant

Louise Ohle 2005 (Berlin)



i feel that we all got to pick one day
but i wasn’t there when it was explained
what our pick would mean for the rest of our lives

i was always too loud for the mouse
not running away from danger fast enough
not being able to look away and keep my mouth shut

but then i was too sensitive for the elephant as well
too open with my struggles, even tears
and always looking in mirrors an elephants head would never fit

i fail to understand how being tall and strong seems so easy for him
and how she was born to be tiny and quiet
it could almost be sad

as if that day, all those years ago
we were only tricked into believing we could choose
when really someone else had formed those piles


Scheme XXX XXA XXX XAX XXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111111 111111101 1101111011101 11111101 11001110101 11010110101111 111111001010011 1101110101 0110010110011101 11101110101111011 011111110010 11111 111111101 1010101010111 110111111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 693
Words 144
Sentences 1
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 109
Words per stanza (avg) 28

About this poem

I think this poems means different things for different people, but for me it still seems obvious that it’s about gender norms and i feel like young people especially will find themselves in it.

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Written on August 28, 2023

Submitted by louiseo18 on August 28, 2023

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