Analysis of IF I BE HUMBLE AND SO MEEK (Honoring a Poet Sage)



The more I read about this tale,
The more my poems seem so pale.

Not shining bright for your delight,
A master’s poems out of sight!

You must consider great the craft,
A poet tinkering with a draft.

To turn this draft into an art,
From which a reader cannot part.

That is a poem I should write;
One you consider not too trite.

I bid you thus to take a peek;
If I be humble and so meek.

Perhaps a comment, here or there,
Would show to me that you do care.

To humor me in some nice way;
To lift me up, and make my day.

No pigtails wear I on my head.
The cap I sport must do instead.

To cover lack of hair up there.
The hat’s my fashionable wear.

I see the twinkle in your eye.
Far better it, than just a sigh.

So thank you much for reading this.
Now I can rest and feel some bliss.


Scheme AA BB CC DD BB EE FF GG HH FF II JJ
Poetic Form Couplet 
Metre 01110111 01110111 11011101 01010111 11010101 010100101 11110111 11010101 11010111 11010111 11111101 11110011 01010111 11111111 11010111 11110111 1111111 01111101 11011111 01110001 11010011 11011101 11111101 11110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 795
Words 197
Sentences 16
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 49
Words per stanza (avg) 14

About this poem

This poem honors the life and legacy of French-German poet, naturalist, linguist, botanist, and romantic writer, Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838). Famous for his pioneer work in Botanical Orthography, reflected in his poetic compositions, Chamisso is also well remembered for his playful, delightfully enchanting pigtail poem entitled simply, in English, “The Pigtail.” The opening stanza of the poem reads as follows: “There lived a sage in days of yore, And he a handsome pigtail wore; But wondered much, and sorrowed more, Because it hung behind him.  

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Written on November 18, 2021

Submitted by karlcfolkes on November 15, 2021

Modified by karlcfolkes on November 01, 2022

59 sec read
355

Karl Constantine FOLKES

Retired educator of Jamaican ancestry with a lifelong interest in composing poetry dealing particularly with the metaphysics of self-reflection; completed a dissertation in Children’s Literature in 1991 at New York University entitled: An Analysis of Wilhelm Grimm’s ‘Liebe Mili’ (translated into English as “Dear Mili”), Employing Von Franzian Methodological Processes of Analytical Psychology. The subject of the dissertation concerned the process of Individuation. more…

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    "IF I BE HUMBLE AND SO MEEK (Honoring a Poet Sage)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 15 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/114047/if-i-be-humble-and-so-meek-%28honoring-a-poet-sage%29>.

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