Analysis of November Cotton Flower

Jean Toomer 1894 (Washington, D.C.) – 1967 (Doylestown)



Boll-weevil's coming, and the winter's cold,
Made cotton-stalks look rusty, seasons old,
And cotton, scarce as any southern snow,
Was vanishing; the branch, so pinched and slow,
Failed in its function as the autumn rake;
Drouth fighting soil had caused the soil to take
All water from the streams; dead birds were found
In wells a hundred feet below the ground--
Such was the season when the flower bloomed.
Old folks were startled, and it soon assumed
Significance. Superstition saw
Something it had never seen before:
Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,
Beauty so sudden for that time of year.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFGHH
Poetic Form
Metre 111000101 1101110101 0101110101 1100011101 1011010101 1101110111 1101011101 0101010101 1101010101 1101001101 01000101 101110101 1111010111 1011011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 601
Words 105
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 481
Words per stanza (avg) 103
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
136

Jean Toomer

Jean Toomer was an American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. more…

All Jean Toomer poems | Jean Toomer Books

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