A Question

Ellis Parker Butler 1869 (Muscatine) – 1937 (Williamsville)



Whene’er I feed the barnyard folk
My gentle soul is vexed;
My sensibilities are torn
And I am sore perplexed.

The rooster so politely stands
While waiting for his food,
But when I feed him, what a change!
He then is rough and rude.

He crowds his gentle wives aside
Or pecks them on the head;
Sometimes I think it would be best
If he were never fed.

And so I often stand for hours
Deciding which is right—
To impolitely have enough,
Or starve and be polite.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

27 sec read
341

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA XBXB XCXC XDXD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 453
Words 90
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

Ellis Parker Butler

Ellis Parker Butler was an American author. more…

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    "A Question" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/11026/a-question>.

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