Lyric Poem · Poems About Dad
Doorframe
You marked my height in pencil
on the doorframe every spring,
and I stretched up on tiptoe,
proud of the extra inch I'd bring.
I'm taller than the markings now,
but Dad, here's what is true:
however high the pencil climbs,
I'm still looking up to you.
Original poem © QuillOak — personal sharing is permitted.
“Doorframe” by The QuillOak Editors — quilloak.com/poems/doorframe-pencil-marks
Quick facts
- Poem
- Doorframe
- Poet
- The QuillOak Editors
- Length
- 8 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- Poems About Dad, Family, Childhood
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 8 lines · 2 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 7-8 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Original QuillOak text. Personal sharing is permitted; other reuse requires permission.
- Author record
- The QuillOak Editorstoday
- Source record
- QuillOak originalDoorframe, authored for QuillOak by The Quillery
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 84bd6f0412254c2e…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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