Analysis of A Frolic

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



SWING yo' lady roun' an' roun',
Do de bes' you know;
Mek yo' bow an' p'omenade
Up an' down de flo';
Mek dat banjo hump huhse'f,
Listen at huh talk:
Mastah gone to town to-night;
'T ain't no time to walk.

Lif' yo' feet an' flutter thoo,
Run, Miss Lucy, run;
Reckon you'll be cotched an' kissed
'Fo' de night is done.
You don't need to be so proud -
I's a-watchin' you,
An' I's layin' lots o' plans
Fu' to git you, too.

Moonlight on de cotton-fiel'
Shinin' sof' an' white,
Whippo'will a-tellin' tales
Out thaih in de night;
An' yo' cabin's 'crost de lot:
Run, Miss Lucy, run;
Reckon you'll be cotched an' kissed
'Fo' de night is done.


Scheme aabxxcbc xABAbxxb xbxbbABA
Poetic Form
Metre 1110111 11111 11111 11111 11111 10111 111111 111111 1111101 11101 1011111 11111 1111111 1011 111111 11111 111101 1111 1011 11011 111111 11101 1011111 11111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 617
Words 123
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 148
Words per stanza (avg) 40
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 16, 2023

39 sec read
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Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

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