Analysis of When Cap'n Tom Comes Home

Katharine Lee Bates 1859 (Falmouth) – 1929 (Wellesley)



WHEN Cap'n Tom comes home, and his sea chest
Is opened, oh, the shells that rainbow foam
Tossed on far shores, by us to be possessed
When Cap'n Tom comes home!
Cocoanuts for which gray, chattering monkeys clomb;
Tamarinds, and dates, and luscious sweetmeats pressed
Into blue jars of quaint pagoda dome!
Canaries, corals, shimmering shawls and, best
Of all, keepsakes that on wild seas a-roam
He carved from whale's tooth for a village blest
When Cap'n Tom comes home!


Scheme abaBbababaB
Poetic Form
Metre 1111110111 110101111 1111111101 111111 10111100101 10101011 0111110101 01010100101 111111101 1111110101 111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 466
Words 82
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 11
Lines Amount 11
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 369
Words per stanza (avg) 80
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

25 sec read
108

Katharine Lee Bates

Katharine Lee Bates is remembered as the author of the words to the anthem America the Beautiful Bates was born in Falmouth Massachusetts and lived as an adult on Centre Street in Newton Massachusetts An historic plaque marks the site of her home The daughter of a Congregational pastor she graduated from Wellesley College in 1880 and for many years was a professor of English literature at Wellesley While teaching there she was elected a member of the newly formed Pi Gamma Mu honor society for the social sciences because of her interest in history and politics for which she also studied She lived at Wellesley with Katharine Coman who herself was a history and political economy teacher and founder of the Wellesley College Economics department The pair lived together for twenty-five years until Comans death in 1915 It is debated if this relationship was an intimate lesbian relationship as different sources maintain or a platonic relationship called sometimes Boston marriages as the local historical society of her birthplace maintain more…

All Katharine Lee Bates poems | Katharine Lee Bates Books

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