Analysis of Ballade Of The Breakfast Table
Franklin P. Adams 1881 (Chicago, Illinois) – 1960 (New York City, New York)
When the Festal Board, as the papers say,
Groans 'neath the weight of a lot to eat,
At breakfast, Fruhstuck or dejeuner,
(As a bard tri-lingual I'm rather neat)
At breakfast, then, if I may repeat,
This is what gets me into a huff,
This is a query I cannot beat:
Why don't they ever have spoons enough?
I've broken my fast with the grave and gay,
With hoi polloi and with the elite;
I've been all over the U. S. A.
From Dorchester Crossing to Kearney Street.
But aye when I sit in the morning seat
Comes to my notice the self-same bluff,
Plenty of food, but in this they cheat:
Why don't they ever have spoons enough?
Take it at breakfast, only to-day:
This was the layout, fresh and sweet:
Canteloupe, sweet as the new-mown hay; [Footnote: And about as edible.]
Cereal-one of the brands[Footnote: To advertisers: This space for sale.]
of wheat;
Soft-boiled eggs (we've cut out the meat) :
Coffee (a claro-manila-buff) :
Napery, china, and glasses complete-
Why don't they ever have spoons enough?
Autocratesses, forgive my heat,
But isn't it time to change that stuff?
Small is the benison I entreat-
Why don't they ever have spoons enough?
Scheme | abxbbcbC abxbbcbC abxxbbcbC bcbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101110101 110110111 110111 101111101 110111101 111110101 110101101 111101101 1101110101 11101001 111100110 110101101 1111100101 111100111 101110111 111101101 111101011 1101101 111011110011100 100110111001111 11 11111101 100100101 11001001 111101101 10111 110111111 110111 111101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,167 |
Words | 207 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 9, 4 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 218 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 41 Views
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"Ballade Of The Breakfast Table" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14111/ballade-of-the-breakfast-table>.
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