Analysis of Prologue to Rhymes to be Traded for Bread
Vachel Lindsay 1879 (Springfield) – 1931 (Springfield)
Even the shrewd and bitter,
Gnarled by the old world's greed,
Cherished the stranger softly
Seeing his utter need.
Shelter and patient hearing,
These were their gifts to him,
To the minstrel chanting, begging,
As the sunset-fire grew dim.
The rich said "you are welcome."
Yea, even the rich were good.
How strange that in their feasting
His songs were understood!
The doors of the poor were open,
The poor who had wandered too,
Who slept with never a roof-tree
Under the wind and dew.
The minds of the poor were open,
There dark mistrust was dead:
They loved his wizard stories,
They bought his rhymes with bread.
Those were his days of glory,
Of faith in his fellow-men.
Therefore to-day the singer
Turns beggar once again.
Scheme | ABCBDEDEXFDFGHCHGIXI CJAJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001010 110111 1001010 101101 1001010 101111 10101010 1011011 0111110 1100101 1110110 11001 01101010 0111101 11110011 100101 01101010 110111 1111010 111111 1011110 1101101 111010 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 731 |
Words | 130 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 285 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 92 Views
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"Prologue to Rhymes to be Traded for Bread" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37327/prologue-to-rhymes-to-be-traded-for-bread>.
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