Analysis of How
Franklin P. Adams 1881 (Chicago, Illinois) – 1960 (New York City, New York)
How can I work when you play the piano,
Feminine person above?
How can I think, with your ceaseless soprano
Singing: 'Ah, Love-'?
How can I dream of a subject aesthetic,
Far from the purlieus of prose?
How, with the call of the peripatetic
'High! High cash clo'es!'?
How can I write when the children are crying?
How can I poetize-how?
How can I help imper_fect_ versifying?
(There is some now.)
How can I bathe in the thought-waves of
beauty?
How, with my nerves on the slant,
Can I perform my poetical duty?
Frankly, I can't.
| Scheme | ABAB CDCD XECE BFGFG |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 11111110010 1001001 11111110010 1011 11111001010 110111 1101100010 1111 11111010110 11111 111111 1111 111100111 10 1111101 11011110 1011 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 533 |
| Words | 100 |
| Sentences | 14 |
| Stanzas | 4 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 5 |
| Lines Amount | 17 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
| 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
- 30 sec read
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"How" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14127/how>.
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