Analysis of The Sum



A little dreaming by the way,
A little toiling day by day;
A little pain, a little strife,
A little joy,--and that is life.

A little short-lived summer's morn,
When joy seems all so newly born,
When one day's sky is blue above,
And one bird sings,--and that is love.

A little sickening of the years,
The tribute of a few hot tears
Two folded hands, the failing breath,
And peace at last,--and that is death.

Just dreaming, loving, dying so,
The actors in the drama go--
A flitting picture on a wall,
Love, Death, the themes; but is that all?


Scheme AABB CCDD XXEE FFGG
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 01010101 01010111 01010101 01010111 01011101 11111101 11111101 01110111 010100101 01010111 11010101 01110111 11010101 01000101 01010101 11011111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 534
Words 106
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 102
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
86

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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