Analysis of Disappointed.
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
AN old man planted and dug and tended,
Toiling in joy from dew to dew;
The sun was kind, and the rain befriended;
Fine grew his orchard and fair to view.
Then he said: 'I will quiet my thrifty fears,
For here is fruit for my failing years.'
But even then the storm-clouds gathered,
Swallowing up the azure sky;
The sweeping winds into white foam lathered
The placid breast of the bay, hard by;
Then the spirits that raged in the darkened air
Swept o'er his orchard and left it bare.
The old man stood in the rain, uncaring,
Viewing the place the storm had swept;
And then with a cry from his soul despairing,
He bowed him down to the earth and wept.
But a voice cried aloud from the driving rain;
'Arise, old man, and plant again!'
Scheme | ABCBDDEFAFGGHIHIJK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111001010 10011111 0111001010 111100111 11111101101 111111101 110101110 10010101 010101111 010110111 10101100101 1101100111 0111001010 10010111 01101111010 111110101 10110110101 01110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 722 |
Words | 143 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 18 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 565 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 139 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 172 Views
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"Disappointed." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28708/disappointed.>.
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