She Told Her Beads

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



She told her beads with down-cast eyes,
Within the ancient chapel dim;
And ever as her fingers slim
Slipt o'er th' insensate ivories,
My rapt soul followed, spaniel-wise.
Ah, many were the beads she wore;
But as she told them o'er and o'er,
They did not number all my sighs.
My heart was filled with unvoiced cries
And prayers and pleadings unexpressed;
But while I burned with Love's unrest,
She told her beads with down-cast eyes.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 12, 2023

24 sec read
113

Quick analysis:

Scheme AbbaacdaaeeA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 429
Words 78
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 12

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…

All Paul Laurence Dunbar poems | Paul Laurence Dunbar Books

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