Analysis of To Remember
Lilah Ainsworth 2007 (Kent)
People say it’s good to remember
To not let memory die like an ember
In the eyes of those who burn on pyres
Who are dead and gone and burned in fires.
When I see people who look like them
And I wish I had stayed home instead
And I often wish they weren’t dead
And I wish I had quit whilst I was ahead
And I wish people would stop telling me to remember
When that day comes around in early December
When l paint a fake smile on my face
And pretend to forget all about the eighth.
When I act like there’s no small twinge
In the pit of my stomach, and that I don’t cringe
When I see the old Facebook profile in my recommended
And I cry when my emotions go undefended.
People say it’s good to tell stories
About what you knew about them and their glories
But I don’t buy that. It’s rude and uncalled for
Let me mourn in my peace; it’s all I am good for.
When I cry in the bathroom on December the eighth
Don’t ask me when I wash the tears from my face.
Don’t ask me when I cry in early May
Because I’ve forgotten the exact, world-shattering day.
When I realise I can’t remember what they look like
Don’t ask me why I go on off-school strike
When I come into a classroom with red eyes
Don’t ask, as a joke, ‘Oh, who has died?’
When I wake up one morning and wish they were there
When I beg and I hope and I send up a prayer
Only to wake up and really realise they’re gone
And I smile, though I know it’s put on.
And there are tear tracks in my mascara but it washes away
And I’m ready for another, wrong-feeling day.
Because I’m here, and they aren’t, and it's not really fair
And I wonder if grief washes out of your hair.
Scheme | AABB XCCC AADE FFXC GGHH EDII JJXX KKXX IIKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (44%) |
Metre | 101111010 11110011110 0011111110 1110101010 111101111 011111101 01101111 01111111101 01110111011010 111101010010 111011111 00110110101 11111111 001111001111 111011101010 0111101011 101111110 011110110110 11111110011 111011111111 111001101001 11111101111 1111110101 01101000111001 111110101111 1111111111 1110101111 111011111 111111001101 111011011101 10111010111 011111111 0111101010111001 011010101101 01110110011101 011011101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,646 |
Words | 333 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 138 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on March 14, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:40 min read
- 4 Views
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"To Remember" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/63376/to-remember>.
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