Analysis of A Love Letter

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



OH, I des received a letter f'om de sweetest little gal;
Oh, my; oh, my.
She's my lovely little sweetheart an' her name is Sal:
Oh, my; oh, my.
She writes me dat she loves me an' she loves me true,
She wonders ef I'll tell huh dat I loves huh, too;
An' my heaht's so full o' music dat I do' know what to do;
Oh, my; oh, my.
I got a man to read it an' he read it fine;
Oh, my; oh, my.
Dey ain' no use denying dat her love is mine;
Oh, my; oh, my.
But hyeah's de t'ing dat's puttin' me in such a awful plight,
I t'ink of huh at mornin' an' I dream of huh at night;
But how's I gwine to cou't huh w'en I do' know how to write?
Oh, my; oh, my.
My heaht is bubblin' ovah wid de t'ings I want to say;
Oh, my; oh, my.
An' dey's lots of folks to copy what I tell 'em fu' de pay;
Oh, my; oh, my.
But dey's t'ings dat I's a-t'inkin' dat is only fu' huh ears,
An' I couldn't lu'n to write 'em ef I took a dozen years;
So to go down daih an' tell huh is de only way, it 'pears;
Oh, my; oh, my.


Scheme aBaBcccBdBdBeeeBfBfBgghB
Poetic Form
Metre 111010101110101 1111 111010110111 1111 111111111111 110111111111 111111101111111 1111 110111111111 1111 111101010111 1111 11111111010101 11111111111111 111111111001111111 1111 111111111111 1111 111111101111111 1111 11111011110111 1110111111110101 111111111110111 1111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 967
Words 222
Sentences 11
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 667
Words per stanza (avg) 220
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:12 min read
135

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…

All Paul Laurence Dunbar poems | Paul Laurence Dunbar Books

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