Analysis of Noddin' By De Fire

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



SOME folks t'inks hit's right an' p'opah,
Soon ez bedtime come erroun',
Fu' to scramble to de kiver,
Lak dey'd hyeahed de trumpet soun'.
But dese people day all misses
Whut I mos'ly does desiah;
Dat's de settin' roun' an' dozin',
An' a-noddin' by de fiah.
When you's tiahed out a-hoein',
Er a-followin' de plough,
Whut's de use of des a-fallin'
On yo' pallet lak a cow?
W'y, de fun is all in waitin'
In de face of all de tiah,
An' a-dozin' and a-drowsin'
By a good ol' hick'ry fiah.
Oh, you grunts an' groans an' mumbles
Case yo' bones is full o' col',
Dough you feels de joy a-tricklin'
Roun' de co'nahs of yo' soul.
An' you 'low anothah minute
'S sho to git you wa'm an' dryah,
W'en you set up pas' yo' bedtime,
Case you hates to leave de fiah.
Whut's de use o' downright sleepin'?
You can't feel it while it las',
An' you git up feelin' sorry
W'en de time fu' it is pas'.
Seem to me dat time too precious,
An' de houahs too short entiah,
Fu' to sleep, w'en you could spen' 'em
Des a-noddin' by de fiah.


Scheme ABCBDEBFBFBGBEBFHIBIJKLFBMCNOEPF
Poetic Form
Metre 11111111 11111 1110111 1111101 11101110 111111 111111 101111 111101 00111 11111010 1110101 1001111101 0111111 101001 101111 11111110 1111111 1111101 111111 111110 111111111 1001111111 1111111 111111 1111111 1111110 1001111111 11111110 111111 11110011110 101111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 984
Words 198
Sentences 10
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 32
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 714
Words per stanza (avg) 196
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:04 min read
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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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