Analysis of The Giddy Girl
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
A giddy young maiden with nimble feet,
Heigh-ho! alack and alas!
Declared she would far rather dance than eat,
And the truth of it came to pass.
For she danced all day and she danced all night;
She danced till the green earth faded white;
She danced ten partners out of breath;
She danced the eleventh one quite to death;
And still she redowaed up and down-
The giddiest girl in town.
With one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three-kick;
Chassée back, chassée back, whirl around quick.
The name of this damsel ended with E-
Heigh-ho! alack and a-day!
And she was as fair as a maiden need be,
Till she danced her beauty away.
She danced her big toes out of joint;
She danced her other toes all to a point;
She danced out slipper and boot and shoe;
She danced till the bones of her feet came through.
And still she redowaed, waltzed and whirled-
The giddiest girl in the world.
With one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three-kick;
Chassée back, chassée back, whirl around quick.
Now the end of my story is sad to relate-
Heigh-ho! and away we go!
For this beautiful maiden's final fate
Is shrouded in gloom and woe.
She danced herself into a patent top;
She whirled and whirled till she could not stop;
She danced and bounded and sprang so far,
That she stuck at last on a pointed star;
And there she must dance till the Judgment Day,
And after it, too, for she danced away
Her soul, you see, so she has no place anywhere out of space,
With her one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three-kick;
Chassée back, chassée back, whirl about quick.
Scheme | ababccddeeFF ghghiijjkkFF lmlmnnoohhxff |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101101101 111001 0111110111 00111111 1111101111 111011101 11110111 1100101111 0111101 01101 11111111111 1111111011 0111101011 111001 01111101011 11101001 11011111 1101011101 111100101 1110110111 0111101 011001 11111111111 1111111011 101111011101 1100111 111001101 1100101 1101010101 110111111 110100111 1111110101 0111110101 0101111101 01111111110111 101111111111 1111111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,539 |
Words | 292 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 12, 13 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 395 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 97 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 61 Views
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"The Giddy Girl" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10847/the-giddy-girl>.
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