Analysis of An Easy Goin' Feller

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



Ther' ain't no use in all this strife,
An' hurryin', pell-mell, right thro' life.
I don't believe in goin' too fast
To see what kind o' road you've passed.
It ain't no mortal kind o' good,
'N' I would n't hurry ef I could.
I like to jest go joggin' 'long,
To limber up my soul with song;
To stop awhile 'n' chat the men,
'N' drink some cider now an' then.
Do' want no boss a-standin' by
To see me work; I allus try
To do my dooty right straight up,
An' earn what fills my plate an' cup.
An' ez fur boss, I'll be my own,
I like to jest be let alone,
To plough my strip an' tend my bees,
An' do jest like I doggoned please.
My head's all right, an' my heart's meller,
But I'm a easy-goin' feller.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 11110111 1111111 11010111 11111111 11110111 1111110111 1111111 11011111 11011101 11110111 1111011 1111111 1111111 11111111 11111111 11111101 11111111 1111111 111111110 11010110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 683
Words 145
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 493
Words per stanza (avg) 143
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 10, 2023

46 sec read
125

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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