Analysis of My Sweet Brown Gal

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



W'EN de clouds is hangin' heavy in de sky,
An' de win's 's a-taihin' moughty vig'rous by,
I don' go a-sighin' all erlong de way;
I des' wo'k a-waitin' fu' de close o' day.
Case I knows w'en evenin' draps huh shadders down,
I won' care a smidgeon fu' de weathah's frown;
Let de rain go splashin', let de thundah raih,
Dey's a happy sheltah, an' I's goin' daih.
Down in my ol' cabin wa'm ez mammy's toas',
'Taters in de fiah layin' daih to roas';
No one daih to cross me, got no talkin' pal
But I's got de comp'ny o' my sweet brown gal.
So I spen's my evenin' listenin' to huh sing,
Lak a blessid angel; how huh voice do ring!
Sweetah den a bluebird flutterin' erroun',
W'en he sees de steamin' o' de new ploughed groun'.
Den I hugs huh closah, closah to my breas'.
Need n't sing, my da'lin', tek you' hones' res'.
Does I mean Malindy, Mandy, Lize er Sal?
No, I means my fiddle—dat's my sweet brown gal!


Scheme AABBCCDEFFGGHHCCFFGG
Poetic Form
Metre 1001111110011 111101111 111011111 11110111111 111100111111 111011111 111111111 101011111 10111011111 10111111 11111111101 1111111111 111111111 1011011111 110111 1001111111111 111111111 11111111111 111110101 11111011111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 892
Words 177
Sentences 10
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 642
Words per stanza (avg) 175
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

58 sec read
52

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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