Analysis of The God Of Common-Sense
My Daddy used to wallop me for every small offense:
"Its takes a hair-brush back," said he, "to teach kids common-sense."
And still to-day I scarce can look a hair-brush in the face.
Without I want in sympathy to pat a tender place.
For Dad declared with unction: "Spare the brush and spoil the brat."
The dear old man! What e'er his faults he never did do that;
And though a score of years have gone since he departed hence,
I still revere his deity, The God of Common-sense.
How often I have played the ass (Man's universal fate),
Yet always I have saved myself before it was too late;
How often tangled with a dame - you know how these things are,
Yet always had the gumption not to carry on too far;
Remembering that fancy skirts, however high they go,
Are not to be stacked up against a bunch of hard-earned dough;
And sentiment has little weight compared with pounds and pence,
According to the gospel of the God of Common-sense.
Oh blessing on that old hair-brush my Daddy used to whack
With such benign precision on the basement of my back.
Oh blessings on his wisdom, saying: "Son, don't play the fool,
Let prudence be your counselor and reason be your rule.
Don't get romantic notions, always act with judgment calm,
Poetical emotions ain't in practice worth a damn/
let solid comfort be your goal, self-interest your guide. . . ."
Then just as if to emphasize, whack! whack! the brush he plied.
And so I often wonder if my luck is Providence,
or just my humble tribute to the God of Common-sense.
Scheme | AABBCCAA DDEEFFAA GGHHXXIIXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111011100101 11011111111101 01111111011001 01110100110101 1101111010101 011111011110111 01011111110101 11011100011101 1101110110101 111111011111 11010101111111 1110101110111 0100110110111 11111101011111 01001101011101 01010101011101 11011111110111 11010101010111 11011101011101 11011100010111 1101010111101 10101010101 1101011111011 1111110110111 01110101111100 11110101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,490 |
Words | 279 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 10 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 45 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 388 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 92 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 70 Views
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"The God Of Common-Sense" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32544/the-god-of-common-sense>.
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