Narrative Poem Research

The poem I chose is "The Broken-Legg'd Man" by John Mackey Shaw. The length of this poem is relatively short compared to almost all other narrative poems. To be honest, that is one of the reasons why I chose this poem. This poem is organized into five stanzas with five lines in each. The last sentence of all the stanzas are the same, and the first two lines rhyme, while the third and fourth rhyme too. In the third stanza, the third and fourth lines used slant rhyme, while all others used end rhyme. I personally admire all the poets that can make perfect rhyming lines because I almost never can do it. I spend so much time going through all the vocabulary in my brain, but often still can't find the right vocabulary to use to make the poem rhyme. There wasn't a controlled meter used in this poem. And the style of this poem is more of a casual tone, like it was purposely designed for children, using easy diction. I don't think that it used good imagery nor figures of speech. The best imagery I could find would be in the last stanza when it talked about how he lost his foot. 

The Broken-Legg'd Man- John Mackey Shaw

I saw the other day when I went shopping in the store

A man I hadn't ever, ever seen in there before,

A man whose leg was broken and who leaned upon a crutch-

I asked him very kindly if it hurt him very much.

"Not at all!" said the broken-legg'd man.

I ran around behind him for I thought that I would see

The broken leg all bandaged up and bent back at the knee;

But I didn't see the leg at all, there wasn't any there,

So I asked him very kindly if he had it hid somewhere.

"Not at all!" said the broken-legg'd man.

"Then where," I asked him, "is it? Did a tiger bite it off?

Or did you get your foot wet when you had a nasty cough?

Did someone jump down on your leg when it was very new?

Or did you simply cut it off because you wanted to?"

"Not at all!" said the broken-legg'd man.  

"What was it then?" I asked him, and this is what he said:

"I crossed a busy crossing when the traffic light was red;

A big black car came whizzing by and knocked me off my feet."

"Of course you looked both ways," I said, "before you crossed the street."

"Not at all!" said the broken-legg'd man.  

"They rushed me to the hospital right quickly, "he went on,

"And when I woke in nice white sheets I saw my leg was gone;

That's why you see me walking now on nothing but a crutch."

"I'm glad," said I, "you told me, and I thank you very much!"

"Not at all!" said the broken-legg'd man.