Analysis of Kingdom Coming
Henry Clay Work 1832 (Middletown, Connecticut) – 1884 (Hartford, Connecticut)
Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa,
Wid de muffstash on his face,
Go long de road some time dis mornin',
Like he gwine to leag de place?
He seen a smoke, way up de ribber,
Whar de Linkum gumboats lay;
He took his hat, an' lef berry sudden,
An' I spec he's run away!
De massa run? ha, ha!
De darkey stay? ho, ho!
It mus' be now de kingdom comin',
An' de year of Jubilo!
He six foot one way, two foot tudder,
An' he weigh tree hundred pound,
His coat so big, he couldn't pay de tailor,
An' it won't go half way round.
He drill so much they call him Cap'an,
An' he get so drefful tann'd,
I spec he try an' fool dem Yankees
For to tink he's contraband.
De darkey's feel so lonesome libing
in de loghouse on de lawn,
Dey move dar things to massa's parlor
For to keep it while he's gone.
Dar's wine an' cider in de kitchen,
An' de darkey's dey'll hab some;
I spose dey'll all be cornfiscated
When de Linkum sojers come.
De oberseer he make us trouble,
An' he dribe us round a spell;
We lock him up in de smokehouse cellar,
Wid de key trown in de well.
De whip is lost, de han'cuff broken,
But de massa'll hab his pay;
He's ole enough, big enough, ought to known better
Dan to went an' run away.
Scheme | XABACDBD XXBD CECEBFXF XBCBBGEG XHCHBDCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111110 111111 11111111 1111111 11011111 11111 1111111010 1111101 110111 11111 11111101 11111 11111111 1111101 11111101110 1111111 111111111 111111 111111110 111110 1111101 011111 11111110 1111111 111100110 111111 111111 11111 1111110 1111101 111101110 1111011 111111110 111111 110110111110 1111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,162 |
Words | 242 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 175 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 102 Views
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"Kingdom Coming" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17269/kingdom-coming>.
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