Analysis of The Germ Chaser
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
I knew a careful lady once
Who read a book by Dr. Bunce,
A wise authority on wogs
That roam about in dust and fogs;
Indeed, he pointed out, all air,
However pure, held germs somewhere;
They clung to door-knobs, crawled on floors,
Inhabited small change in scores.
In fact, there scarcely was a thing
To which some foul germ did not cling,
Ready to leap and work its will
To some poor luckless human's ill.
The lady closed the book and sighed,
And all content within her died.
This pleasant earth for her became
The haunt of wogs, and life a game
Of hide and seek. She joined the band
Of grim germ-chasers in the land.
She scoured and scrubbed, examined food -
Which, thus far, was all to the good -
But when she strove to disinfect
Her home, 'twas worse than mild neglect;
No hospital smelled half so bad,
And then, I fear, she went quite mad.
Her eye took on a maniac glare;
She saw germs lurking everywhere.
She hung up mottoes such as this:
'Ten thousand germs in every kiss.'
She would not handle coins or take
Another's hand for friendship's sake;
Scarce dared to eat or draw a breath
For fear she might imbibe her death.
She sprayed her husband, heels to head,
With crude carbolic till he fled;
But, since she had means of her own,
She much preferred to live alone.
When going into town one day,
Wrapped up and muzzled in a way
Quite microbe-proof, from foot to crown,
A passing motor knocked her down.
And where she's sleeping soundly now
The germs have got her, anyhow…
The point of this sad tale is here:
Better be dead than live in fear;
Better live like a Stone Age man
Before germ-consciousness began;
Better take chances, seems to me,
Than try to dodge what you can't see.
Scheme | AAAXBBCCDDEE FFGGHHXXIIJJ BBKKLLMMNNOO PPQQRRXXSSTT |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 1101111 01010011 11010101 01110111 101111 11111111 01001101 01110101 11111111 10110111 11110101 01010101 01100101 11011001 01110101 11011101 11110001 110010101 11111101 11111001 01111101 1101111 01111111 01110101 1111010 1111111 110101001 11110111 0101111 11111101 11110101 11010111 111111 11111101 11011101 11001111 11010001 1111111 01010101 01110101 0111010 01111111 10111101 10110111 01110001 10110111 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,649 |
Words | 318 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 12, 12, 12 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 326 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 79 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 1:36 min read
- 42 Views
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"The Germ Chaser" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6652/the-germ-chaser>.
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