Analysis of A Culinary Puzzle
Ellis Parker Butler 1869 (Muscatine) – 1937 (Williamsville)
In our dainty little kitchen,
Where my aproned wife is queen
Over all the tin-pan people,
In a realm exceeding clean,
Oft I like to loiter, watching
While she mixes things for tea;
And she tasks me, slyly smiling,
“Now just guess what this will be!”
Hidden in a big blue apron,
Her dimpled arms laid bare,
And the love-smiles coyly mingling
With a housewife’s frown of care—
See her beat a golden batter,
Pausing but to ask of me,
As she adds a bit of butter,
“Now just guess what this will be!”
Then I bravely do my duty,
Guess it, “pudding,” “cake” or “pie,”
“Dumplings,” “waffles,” “bread” or “muffins;”
But no matter what I try,
This provoking witch just answers:
“Never mind, just wait and see!
But I think you should be able,
Dear, to guess what this will be.”
Little fraud! she never tells me
Until ’tis baked and browned—
And I think I know the reason
For her secrecy profound—
She herself with all her fine airs
And her books on cookery,
Could not answer, should I ask her,
“Dearest, what will that mess be?”
Scheme | abcbdedE afdfgegE ehxhxece eiaixfge |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010101010 111111 10101110 0010101 11111010 1110111 01111010 1111111 10001110 010111 001110100 101111 10101010 1011111 11101110 1111111 11101110 1110111 10101110 1110111 10101110 1011101 11111110 1111111 10111011 011101 01111010 1010001 10111011 00111 11101110 1011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,048 |
Words | 200 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 192 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 99 Views
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"A Culinary Puzzle" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/11022/a-culinary-puzzle>.
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