Analysis of The Jilted Lover To His Mother
Edith Nesbit 1858 (Kennington, Surrey ) – 1924 (New Romney, Kent)
You needn't pray for me, old lady, I don't want no one's prayer,
I'm fit and jolly as ever I was--you needn't think I care.
When I go whistling down the road, when the warm night is falling,
She needn't think I'm whistling her, it's another girl I'm calling.
If I pass her house a dozen times, or fifty times a day,
She needn't think I think of her, my work lies out that way.
If they should tell her I've grown thin (for that is what they've told me)
This cursed weather counts for that, and not the girl who sold me.
And if they say I'm off my feed I still can tip a can;
If I get drunk what's that to her? I am not her young man.
I know I've had a lucky let-off--she ain't no class, she ain't,
For all she looked like a bush o' roses and talked like a story book saint.
I never give a thought to her. Don't worry your old head,
I've quite forgot her pretty ways and the cruel things she said,
There's lots of other gals to be had as any chap can see,
So you cheer up, you've got no call to go and pray for me.
But all the same, if you want to pray, you'd best pray God take care of them,
For if I catch them two together, by hell! I'll swing for the pair of them.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF GGDDHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111110111111 1101011011110111 111101011011110 1101110010101110 111010101110101 11011110111111 111101111111111 11101110101111 01111111111101 11111110111011 111101011111111 111110111001101011 11010110110111 110101010010111 111101111110111 11111111110111 11011111111111111 111111010111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 1,157 |
Words | 245 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 48 |
Words per line (avg) | 14 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 215 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 61 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 49 Views
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"The Jilted Lover To His Mother" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8973/the-jilted-lover-to-his-mother>.
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