Analysis of Mrs. Benjamin Painter
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
I know that he told how I snared his soul
With a snare which bled him to death.
And all the men loved him,
And most of the women pitied him.
But suppose you are really a lady, and have delicate tastes,
And loathe the smell of whisky and onions.
And the rhythm of Wordsworth's "Ode" runs in your ears,
While he goes about from morning till night
Repeating bits of that common thing;
"Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"
And then, suppose:
You are a woman well endowed,
And the only man with whom the law and morality
Permit you to have the marital relation
Is the very man that fills you with disgust
Every time you think of it--while you think of it
Every time you see him?
That's why I drove him away from home
To live with his dog in a dingy room
Back of his office.
Scheme | ABCCDEFGHIJIKLMNCOPQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) |
Metre | 1111111111 10111111 010111 01101011 1011110010011001 0101110010 00101111011 1110111011 010111101 11101011011 0101 11010101 00101110100100 011110100010 10101111101 1001111111111 1001111 111110111 1111100101 11110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 787 |
Words | 157 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 20 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 603 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 154 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 114 Views
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"Mrs. Benjamin Painter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8663/mrs.-benjamin-painter>.
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