Analysis of Song Of Summer

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



DIS is gospel weathah sho' —
Hills is sawt o' hazy.
Meddahs level ez a flo'
Callin' to de lazy.
Sky all white wif streaks o' blue,
Sunshine softly gleamin',
D'ain't no wuk hit's right to do,
Nothin' 's right but dreamin'.
Dreamin' by de rivah side
Wif de watahs glist'nin',
Feelin' good an' satisfied
Ez you lay a-list'nin'
To the little nakid boys
Splashin' in de watah,
Hollerin' fu' to spress deir joys
Jes' lak youngsters ought to.
Squir'l a-tippin' on his toes,
So's to hide an' view you;
Whole flocks o' camp-meetin' crows
Shoutin' hallelujah.
Peckahwood erpon de tree
Tappin' lak a hammah;
Jaybird chattin' wif a bee,
Tryin' to teach him grammah.
Breeze is blowin' wif perfume,
Jes' enough to tease you;
Hollyhocks is all in bloom,
Smellin' fu' to please you.
Go 'way, folks, an' let me 'lone,
Times is gettin' dearah —
Summah's settin' on de th'one,
An' I'm a-layin' neah huh!


Scheme ABCBDEDEFEFEGFGDHDHIBJBJJDJDEKEI
Poetic Form
Metre 111011 111110 110101 11110 1111111 1101 1111111 101111 11111 1111 11110 11101 101011 1011 111111 111011 1010111 111111 111111 1010 1111 10101 110101 11111 111101 101111 101101 11111 1111111 1111 1111111 110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 865
Words 159
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 32
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 651
Words per stanza (avg) 157
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

50 sec read
153

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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