Analysis of A Pastoral
Ellis Parker Butler 1869 (Muscatine) – 1937 (Williamsville)
Just as the sun was setting
Back of the Western hills
Grandfather stood by the window
Eating the last of his pills.
And Grandmother, by the cupboard,
Knitting, heard him say:
'I ought to have went to the village
To fetch some more pills today.'
Then Grandmother snuffled a teardrop
And said. 'It is jest like I suz
T’ th’ parson—Grandfather’s liver
Ain’t what it used to was:
'It’s gittin’ torpid and dormant,
It don’t function like of old,
And even them pills he swallers
Don’t seem no more t’ catch hold;
'They used to grab it and shake it
And joggle it up and down
And turn dear Grandfather yaller
Except when they turned him brown;
'I remember when we was married
His liver was lively and gay,
A kickin’ an’ rippin’ an’ givin’
Dear Ezry new pains ev’ry day;
'It used to turn clear over backwards
An’ palpitate wuss’n a pump
An’ give him the janders and yallers
An’ bounce around thumpty-thump;
'But now it is torpid and dormant
And painless and quiet and cold;
Ah, me! all’s so peaceful an’ quiet
Since Grandfather’s liver ’s grown old!
Then Grandmother wiped a new teardrop
And sighed: 'It is just like I suz
T’ th’ parson: Grandfather’s liver
Ain’t what it used to was.'
Scheme | xaxa xbxb cadE fgag xhdh xbhb xcac fgxg cadE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1101110 110101 1011010 1001111 0101010 10111 111111010 1111101 110101 01111111 111101010 111111 1110010 1110111 0101111 1111111 11111011 011101 011101 0111111 101011110 11011001 011111 111111 111111010 1100101 1110101 110111 111110010 01001001 111110110 11010111 1101011 01111111 111101010 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,205 |
Words | 219 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 87 Views
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"A Pastoral" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/11025/a-pastoral>.
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