Analysis of My Corn-Cob Pipe



Men may sing of their Havanas, elevating to the stars
The real or fancied virtues of their foreign-made cigars;
But I worship Nicotina at a different sort of shrine,
And she sits enthroned in glory in this corn-cob pipe of mine.

It 's as fragrant as the meadows when the clover is in bloom;
It 's as dainty as the essence of the daintiest perfume;
It 's as sweet as are the orchards when the fruit is hanging ripe,
With the sun's warm kiss upon them--is this corn-cob pipe.

Thro' the smoke about it clinging, I delight its form to trace,
Like an oriental beauty with a veil upon her face;
And my room is dim with vapour as a church when censers sway,
As I clasp it to my bosom--in a figurative way.

It consoles me in misfortune and it cheers me in distress,
And it proves a warm partaker of my pleasures in success;
So I hail it as a symbol, friendship's true and worthy type,
And I press my lips devoutly to my corn-cob pipe.


Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF GGDD
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 111111100101 01110101110101 1110110100111 01110100111111 111101011010101 11110101010101 1111110101011101 1011101111111 101011101011111 11010101010101 0111111101111 111111100010001 101100100111001 0110111110001 11111010110101 0111101011111
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 919
Words 180
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 45
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 179
Words per stanza (avg) 45
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 04, 2023

54 sec read
146

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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