Analysis of Our Helen
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 1825 – 1911
Our Helen is a 'perfect love'
Of a blue-eyed baby;
When she's grown she'll be a belle,
And a 'Venus,' may be.
Such a cunning little mouth,
Lips as red as cherry,
And she smiles on all around
In a way so merry.
Laughs, and crows, and claps her hands,
Springs, and hops, and dances,
As if her little brain overflowed
With lively, tripping fancies.
Then she'll arch her pretty neck,
And toss her head so queenly,
And, when she's weary, fall asleep
And slumber so serenely.
She has a cunning kind of way
Of looking sly and witty,
As if to say, in baby words,
'I know I'm very pretty.'
She bites her 'mammy,' scratches 'nurse,'
And makes droll mouths at 'pappy;'
We can but love the roguish thing,
She looks so bright and happy.
The dinner-table seems to be
The crown of all her wishes,
For there the gypsy's sure to have
A hand in all the dishes.
But why should we essay to sing
Her thousand sprightly graces?
She has the merriest of ways,
The prettiest of faces.
We know she'll grow a peerless one,
With skin all white and pearly;
And laughing eyes, and auburn locks,
All silky, soft and curly.
Her baby laugh and sportive glee,
Her spirit's airy lightness,
Surround the pleasant prairie home
With hues of magic brightness.
Scheme | XABA XAXA XCXX XBDA XAXA XDEA AFXC EFXC XAXA AGXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (70%) Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 101010011 101110 1111101 001011 1010101 111110 0111101 001110 1010101 101010 11010101 1101010 1110101 010111 01110101 01010100 11010111 1101010 11110101 1111010 1101101 011111 1111011 1111010 01010111 0111010 1101111 0101010 11110111 0101010 110111 0100110 11110101 1111010 01010101 1101010 0101011 0101010 01010101 1111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,189 |
Words | 232 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 93 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 54 Views
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"Our Helen" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13740/our-helen>.
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