Analysis of Measuring tape
Glory Sasikala 1964 (Kolkata)
You, the Queen, I, the crumb 'neath the table—
Non-existent
till you heard them exclaim I was beautiful
smart and talented.
And then you noticed, startled.
Is that when
you started measurement points
next to my natural growth points?
For each time I lost, I shrunk in your eyes
once again
to the crumb on the floor.
For each time I won
you pretended you didn't know...
Did it help ease the pain of when you felt you didn't 'measure up?'
So absorbed in your game
of measuring up and down my measurements
you forgot your own—
that you were beautiful too!
And smart and talented.
Futile traits now I guess—'cause
you are now just a Measuring Tape.
I wish I knew how to set you free of your misery—
from the price you've paid for knowing me.
And I'm sorry for the pain I've caused you
albeit unwittingly for I was only a child
Even now
I wouldn’t know how to try though...'cause
I still don't know how to measure.
Scheme | AXABX CDD XCX XX X XXXEBXX FFEX XXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011011010 1010 11110111100 10100 0111010 111 1101001 11110011 1111111011 101 101101 11111 10101101 1111011111110101 101011 11001011100 10111 1101001 010100 1011110 111101001 11111111111100 101111101 0110101111 01001001111001 101 11111111 11111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 893 |
Words | 173 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 3, 3, 2, 1, 7, 4, 3 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 88 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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"Measuring tape" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/99335/measuring-tape>.
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