Analysis of Precedent

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



The poor man went to the rich man's doors,
'I come as Lazarus came,' he said.
The rich man turned with humble head,--
'I will send my dogs to lick your sores!'


Scheme ABBA
Poetic Form Enclosed rhyme
Quatrain 
Metre 011110111 111100111 01111101 111111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 164
Words 37
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 4
Lines Amount 4
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 116
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

10 sec read
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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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