Analysis of Religion

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



I AM no priest of crooks nor creeds,
For human wants and human needs
Are more to me than prophets' deeds;
And human tears and human cares
Affect me more than human prayers.
Go, cease your wail, lugubrious saint!
You fret high Heaven with your plaint.
Is this the 'Christian's joy' you paint?
Is this the Christian's boasted bliss?
Avails your faith no more than this?
Take up your arms, come out with me,
Let Heav'n alone; humanity
Needs more and Heaven less from thee.
With pity for mankind look 'round;
Help them to rise — and Heaven is found.


Scheme AAABBCCCDDEEEFF
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 11111111 11010101 11111101 01010101 01111101 111101001 11110111 1101111 1101101 1111111 11111111 11010100 11010111 11011111 111101011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 541
Words 102
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 422
Words per stanza (avg) 100
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 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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