Analysis of Old Town Types No. 23 - Little Miss Mix
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
In a rather tiny building at the bottom of the street,
With a green door and a window small and very neat,
With its shock of beads and button-cards, cottons, bones and braid,
Miss Mix, the village dressmaker, plied a modest trade.
The front shop, with its counter, was a miniature affair,
And trivial the business that was conducted there.
But the back room - the workroom - 'Hours from Nine to Six' -
Was a vestal shrine whose priestess was little Miss Mix.
Tho' man had never gazed within, the sanctum held, 'twas known,
A wealth of female mysteries, for female eyes alone:
Dress-dummies, skirt-stands, a host of fashion fads,
Hip improvers, buckram shapes, curious bustle-pads.
But Mr Mole, who owned a store, and sold things ready-made,
Was oft-times strangely bitter over Miss Mix and her trade.
'A tittle-tattle factory!' said he. 'A gossip-shop!
With its babbling cotton-biters. Why, the thing had ought to stop.'
And many another male declared that Mr Mole was right -=
Chiefly husbands - for the charges of Miss Mix were never light.
And, tho' they talked in that back room of fashion, style and cost,
Many characters were shattered, many reputations lost
As scraps of spiteful sibilants came drifting thro' that door:
'A hussy dear!' ... 'Such goings on!' ... 'And I heard something more.' ...
And many an unsuspecting wench was hounded to her doom
In mousey little Miss Mix's little back room.
When last I saw the old town, nigh twenty years ago,
Its street was little altered, its tempo still was slow;
But where the wee dressmaker's shop in old days used to stand
A 'modern' shop-front glittered, very 'arty,' very grand.
Now Miss Mix was known as Sarah in the days when I was young,
And her trade was 'Plain Dressmaking'; but now a shingle swung
All done in fancy wrought-iron, with twirls and scrolls and tricks:
'Costumiere. Parisian Modes. Direction: Sara Miques.'
Scheme | AABBCCDD EEFFBBGG HHXXIIJJ KKLLMMDD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 001010101010101 1011001010101 11111010110101 110101010101 01111101010001 0100010110101 101101101111 1010111011011 11110101010111 011110011101 11011011101 1111100101 11011101011101 11110101011001 01010100110101 111001011011111 010010101110111 101010101110101 01110111110101 10100010100101 111101110111 01011101011101 01010101110101 0110111011 1111011110101 111101011111 110111011111 01011101010101 111111100011111 0011110110101 11010110110101 10101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,864 |
Words | 330 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 45 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 362 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 82 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:37 min read
- 24 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Old Town Types No. 23 - Little Miss Mix" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6488/old-town-types-no.-23---little-miss-mix>.
Discuss this Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In