Analysis of Enemy



Sometimes, that enemy creeps in slowly, like the early morning fog. The fingers are wispy tendrils reaching for something to hold on to, but gives you a warning of its coming. You brace yourself for the gray-black curtain that slowly edges it’s way towards you knowing that it will be unpleasant when it binds you.

There’s a small hope that the enemy will be as insignificant as the opaque misty wall that slowly, quietly rolls in. In the long anxious moments of waiting, the mind will steel itself with rock walls with sand for mortar. It’s better than the flimsy plastic film that occasionally wraps it’s way around your mind. As the smoke-colored enemy vanishes, only lingering until the temperature rises, it exits quicker than it arrived.

The body is weak, but not broken.

Other times the enemy blockades you in the damp black rock walls, closely aligned, arresting you in the screaming barrier and gnashing demons that crawl behind. As you’re ill prepared without warning, you panic in the overwhelming darkness. You push against the frigid, damp, unyielding masses with all of the strength within you- at first.
Hours of fighting the solid earth, screaming, pleading, clawing, and praying. No chains hold you, they are not necessary.
Your mind bending to the enemy’s will- consuming the energy fueling the prison in which you remain. The body grows weary and numb.
Unfeeling and bleeding.
There, you escape the misery, fleetingly with numbness and cold. The images behind your eyes lend you no solace, but the mind binds itself slowly as you disconnect.

The enemy’s walls fall away- your jailer bored from the absence of fight. The escape leaves you shaking, bloody, and bruised, but you heal somehow, slower with each attack than the last.

The game the enemy plays is that of a cat toying with the mouse for its musing and entertainment.

The enemy robs you each time, painfully slow boiling of the mind’s protection, until there is nothing but emptiness left. The only way to win is death. That peaceful separation from the mind, where the spirit escapes the clutches of the enemy’s reach into the space beyond which crushes the darkness.

Until then, Death my friend, the hero that will defeat the enemy, I shall endure until you overcome.


Scheme X X X XXAXX X X X A
Poetic Form
Metre 0111001010101010101011011011011111110101110110110111011010110111011110101111 101110100111010010011011101001000110101100111011111111011010101011010001110111101101001001010001010010110101101 010111110 101010011001111100101010010100010101101111010110110000101011010101010101110101111 1011001011010100101111111100 111010110100100100100110101011001 010010 110101001001100101000111111101011011011001 0111011101101011001111010011111101101101 0101001111011010111100010 0100111110011010101001111011001010111111100101011010010101011010101110010 01111101011010100110101110
Characters 2,284
Words 400
Sentences 26
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 1, 1, 1, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 150
Words per line (avg) 32
Letters per stanza (avg) 225
Words per stanza (avg) 48

About this poem

This was penned after a major depressive episode, to bring imagery to the war inside my mind.

Font size:
 

Written on December 22, 2021

Submitted by amanda.v.sumrall02 on January 28, 2024

2:00 min read
49

Amanda Sumrall

Educator Mom of 3 Musician Writer more…

All Amanda Sumrall poems | Amanda Sumrall Books

1 fan

Discuss this Amanda Sumrall poem analysis with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Enemy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/180608/enemy>.

    Become a member!

    Join our community of poets and poetry lovers to share your work and offer feedback and encouragement to writers all over the world!

    June 2024

    Poetry Contest

    Join our monthly contest for an opportunity to win cash prizes and attain global acclaim for your talent.
    28
    days
    13
    hours
    22
    minutes

    Special Program

    Earn Rewards!

    Unlock exciting rewards such as a free mug and free contest pass by commenting on fellow members' poems today!

    Browse Poetry.com

    Quiz

    Are you a poetry master?

    »
    Who wrote the poem 'My Shadow'?
    A Robert Louis Stevenson
    B Maya Angelou
    C Edgar Allan Poe
    D Sylvia Plath