Analysis of The Delinquent

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



GOO'-BY, Jinks, I got to hump,
Got to mek dis pony jump;
See dat sun a-goin' down
'N' me a-foolin' hyeah in town!
Git up, Suke — go long!
Guess Mirandy'll think I's tight,
Me not home an' comin' on night.
What's dat stan'in' by de fence?
Pshaw! why don't I lu'n some sense?
Git up, Suke — go long!
Guess I spent down dah at Jinks'
Mos' a dollah fur de drinks.
Bless yo'r soul, you see dat star?
Lawd, but won't Mirandy rar?
Git up, Suke — go long!
Went dis mo'nin', hyeah it's night,
Dab's de cabin dah in sight.
Who's dat stan'in' in de do'?
Dat must be Mirandy, sho',
Git up, Suke — go long!
Got de close-stick in huh han',
Dat look funny, goodness lan',
Sakes alibe, but she look glum!
Hyeah, Mirandy, hyeah I come!
Git up, Suke — go long!
Ef 't hadn't a be'n fur you, you slow ole fool,
I'd a' be'n home long fo' now!


Scheme aabbCddeeCffggCddhiCjkllCmn
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111 111111 111011 1101101 11111 11111 1111111 1110111 11111111 11111 1111111 101111 11111111 11111 11111 111111 1110101 1110011 11111 11111 1111011 1110101 111111 11111 11111 1110011111111 10111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 813
Words 168
Sentences 19
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 27
Lines Amount 27
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 569
Words per stanza (avg) 166
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

55 sec read
128

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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