Analysis of October

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



October is the treasurer of the year,
And all the months pay bounty to her store;
The fields and orchards still their tribute bear,
And fill her brimming coffers more and more.
But she, with youthful lavishness,
Spends all her wealth in gaudy dress,
And decks herself in garments bold
Of scarlet, purple, red, and gold.
She heedeth not how swift the hours fly,
But smiles and sings her happy life along;
She only sees above a shining sky;
She only hears the breezes' voice in song.
Her garments trail the woodlands through,
And gather pearls of early dew
That sparkle, till the roguish Sun
Creeps up and steals them every one.
But what cares she that jewels should be lost,
When all of Nature's bounteous wealth is hers?
Though princely fortunes may have been their cost,
Not one regret her calm demeanor stirs.
Whole-hearted, happy, careless, free,
She lives her life out joyously,
Nor cares when Frost stalks o'er her way
And turns her auburn locks to gray.


Scheme ABCBDDEEFGFGHHIIJDKDLFMM
Poetic Form
Metre 01010100101 0101110101 0101011101 0101010101 111101 11010101 01010101 11010101 111110101 1101010101 1101010101 1101010101 0101011 01011101 1101011 110111001 1111110111 111101110 1101011111 1101010101 11010101 110111 111111001 01010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 944
Words 171
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 759
Words per stanza (avg) 169
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

51 sec read
148

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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