Analysis of Expectation

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



You 'll be wonderin' whut 's de reason
I 's a grinnin' all de time,
An' I guess you t'ink my sperits
Mus' be feelin' mighty prime.
Well, I 'fess up, I is tickled
As a puppy at his paws.
But you need n't think I's crazy,
I ain' laffin' 'dout a cause.

You's a wonderin' too, I reckon,
Why I does n't seem to eat,
An' I notice you a lookin'
Lak you felt completely beat
When I 'fuse to tek de bacon,
An' don' settle on de ham.
Don' you feel no feah erbout me,
Jes' keep eatin', an' be ca'm.

Fu' I's waitin' an' I's watchin'
'Bout a little t'ing I see--
D' othah night I's out a walkin'
An' I passed a 'simmon tree.
Now I's whettin' up my hongry,
An' I's laffin' fit to kill,
Fu' de fros' done turned de 'simmons,
An' de possum 's eat his fill.

He done go'ged hisse'f owdacious,
An' he stayin' by de tree!
Don' you know, ol' Mistah Possum
Dat you gittin' fat fu' me?
'T ain't no use to try to 'spute it,
'Case I knows you's gittin' sweet
Wif dat 'simmon flavoh thoo you,
So I's waitin' fu' yo' meat.

An' some ebenin' me an Towsah
Gwine to come an' mek a call,
We jes' drap in onexpected
Fu' to shek yo' han', dat's all.
Oh, I knows dat you 'll be tickled,
Seems lak I kin see you smile,
So pu'haps I mought pu'suade you
Fu' to visit us a while.


Scheme ABCBDCCC AEAEAXFX ACAFXGCG CFXFXEHE CIDIDJHJ
Poetic Form Etheree  (28%)
Metre 111111110 1101111 11111111 111101 11111110 1010111 111111110 1110101 1011110 11111111 1110101 1110101 11111110 1110111 1111111 1111111 111111 10101111 1111101 1110101 111111 1110111 11111110 11101111 111111 111111 1111110 111111 111111111 111111 1110111 111111 111111 1111101 11101 1111111 111111110 1111111 111111 1110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,209
Words 258
Sentences 13
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 173
Words per stanza (avg) 51
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 26, 2023

1:23 min read
150

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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