Analysis of Expanded Horizon
The horizon, my ancestors say,
is an eye. When it shuts
its lashes sift the sea for rafts
and turn fishermen and divers to stone,
their hands still clenched around pearls,
their blood turning crystalline and cold.
The gods were in love with the horizon.
They hung their jewels
on the night-sky and ebbed into the eye
while my people stared
at the orphaned trinkets.
The priestesses rummaged
through their rucksacks.
They rubbed twigs and killed goats.
They chanted and chanted
until their voices felled the trees.
The gods have vanished.
The storms and smog have snatched
their jewels from the sky.
When the skies cleared, we saw a sun
not even ours.
The horizon is a lover of light.
Look: The galleons came and went
and none were turned to stone.
Ours is a history of consequences.
He who fails to look back.
And what is there to look forward to?
What is left but light? He who runs fast.
When the galleons came, no one ran.
We bartered our tongues
for something to chew on,
our hands for a fistful of sand.
The priestesses rummaged through their rucksacks.
What is left but light? A stray grain of rice,
the hard shell of a crab, a leaf.
Scheme | A B X C X X D X E X B X A X X X X X E D X X X C X X X X X X X X A X X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (26%) |
Metre | 00101101 111111 11010111 0110001011 1111011 11101001 0100110010 11110 10110100101 11101 101010 0110 111 111011 110010 01110101 01110 010111 110101 10111101 11010 0010101011 10100101 010111 10101001100 111111 011111101 111111111 101001111 110101 110111 101101011 0110111 1111101111 01110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,109 |
Words | 210 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 35 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 26 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 6 |
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Submitted on May 01, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 4 Views
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"Expanded Horizon" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/70708/expanded-horizon>.
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