Analysis of At Cheshire Cheese

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



When first of wise old Johnson taught,
My youthful mind its homage brought,
And made the pond'rous crusty sage
The object of a noble rage.

Nor did I think (How dense we are!)
That any day, however far,
Would find me holding, unrepelled,
The place that Doctor Johnson held!

But change has come and time has moved,
And now, applauded, unreproved,
I hold, with pardonable pride,
The place that Johnson occupied.

Conceit! Presumption! What is this?
You surely read my words amiss;
Like Johnson I,--a man of mind!
How could you ever be so blind?

No. At the ancient 'Cheshire Cheese,'
Blown hither by some vagrant breeze,
To dignify my shallow wit,
In Doctor Johnson's seat I sit!


Scheme AABB CCAX XADD EEFF GGHH
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11111101 11011101 0101101 01010101 11111111 1101101 111101 01110101 11110111 010101 11111 0111010 01010111 11011101 11010111 11110111 11010101 11011101 1101101 01010111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 663
Words 123
Sentences 12
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 104
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 15, 2023

37 sec read
83

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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