Differences

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



My neighbor lives on the hill,
And I in the valley dwell,
My neighbor must look down on me,
Must I look up?--ah, well,
My neighbor lives on the hill,
And I in the valley dwell.

My neighbor reads, and prays,
And I--I laugh, God wot,
And sing like a bird when the grass is green
In my small garden plot;
But ah, he reads and prays,
And I--I laugh, God wot.

His face is a book of woe,
And mine is a song of glee;
A slave he is to the great 'They say,'
But I--I am bold and free;
No wonder he smacks of woe,
And I have the tang of glee.

My neighbor thinks me a fool,
'The same to yourself,' say I;
'Why take your books and take your prayers,
Give me the open sky;'
My neighbor thinks me a fool,
'The same to yourself,' say I.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 13, 2023

46 sec read
78

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABcbAB dExedE fcxcfc GHxhGH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 706
Words 158
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6

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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    "Differences" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/28703/differences>.

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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A Line break
    B Enjambment
    C A turn
    D Dithyramb